


If You Wanna Be My Partner

by warriorblood1



Series: RESBANG/REVERB [1]
Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Canon Typical Violence, Canon-Compliant, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, RESBANG YEET YEET, anyway this is. a Gen fic mostly, slowburn, this is my first resbang im so excited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:08:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 26,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21787270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warriorblood1/pseuds/warriorblood1
Summary: Spirit Albarn isn't expecting much when he comes to the DWMA. And then a nine-year-old meister named Franken Stein appeared.Life, love, friendship, and betrayal at the DWMA.
Relationships: Franken Stein & Spirit Albarn, Franken Stein/Marie Mjolnir, Spirit Albarn/Kami
Series: RESBANG/REVERB [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2148615
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24
Collections: Soul Eater Resonance Bang 2019





	1. Humble Beginnings

Spirit entered the DWMA as a student when he was twelve, though that wasn’t the first time he had been to the school. The Albarn family was a long line of weapons, who had been attending the DWMA for centuries. Spirit’s parents had brought him a few times before, for reasons he was too young to understand at the time. But the point was, once Spirit was actually a student at the academy, it wasn’t that big a deal to him. Not exactly anything new or exciting. Not even student-wise; his family knew a good chunk of the “important” weapon and meister families, and thus he had met pretty much everyone he was expecting to be in his class some years ago.

That being said, he hadn’t accounted for people who were  _ not  _ from important families.

Like Stein.

Mostly just Stein.

He was German, raised Jewish but claimed to be something of an agnostic, and also nine years old.

The thing about the DWMA is that you can  _ technically  _ be a student at any age, but most of the time you can’t be fully enrolled until you’re twelve. Which meant that Stein was three years ahead of the curve. A very rare thing indeed.

But that wasn’t the weirdest thing about him.

Stein is probably insane, based on Spirit’s understanding of madness, and is  _ way too into  _ unethical science. He also gets into a lot of fights and already has quite the control over his soul wavelength.

So he’s already making Spirit’s time at the DWMA  _ much  _ more interesting.

And since Stein is the most interesting meister (if not most interesting  _ person _ ) at the academy, obviously he has to be Spirit’s partner. It’s a matter of life and death. To Spirit, at least.

So. How to get the perfect meister? That was the task Spirit now faced. Upon asking him earlier, after the introduction ceremony, Stein immediately said no and walked away. Spirit had followed after him, trying to ask why, and Stein explained simply.

“Six other weapons have already asked me.” Stein shrugged. “Seven including you. And nobody has proven themselves to me yet.”

At that, Spirit had stopped walking while Stein continued on to the end of the hall. He looked back at Spirit over his shoulder. “If you can prove you’re as strong as me, then maybe I’ll choose you.” And away he went.

Not for long, though. Once at the dorms, the two discovered that, along with another boy, they were roommates.

Weeks passed and Spirit had tried to prove himself to the young meister, to no avail. He had tried out many different partners, none of whom stayed for long, and currently had his sights set on a girl, some kind of hammer weapon, who was apparently a very stubborn soul that didn’t care that Stein had become a schoolwide celebrity, and seemed to want nothing to do with him.

Spirit, meanwhile, had been approached by nobody. It seemed they all found him just as boring as he found them. He figured it was karma.

Now, it was the weekend, and Spirit had spent all of his weekly allowance already, so he was just loitering around campus, distractedly reading a book he checked out from the library. His thoughts, of course, were more on Stein than on Harry Potter’s current escapades. How could he prove himself if he didn’t have a partner? He was a weapon, and not a self-wielding one. What does proving himself mean in that regard?

He had barely registered bumping into someone, he was so lost in his thoughts, but the girl he bumped into was quick to remind him.

“Hey!” She shouted, clearly annoyed. Spirit jumped, slammed the book shut, and whipped around. His fear melted away once he realized that he recognized her.

Her name was Kamila Queen, better known as simply Kami. She was a meister in his class, and rumor has it she was partnered with the hammer girl that Stein currently had his eyes on.

Spirit was very not afraid of her. But he didn’t want to come off as rude.

“Hey, Kami.”

Yeah, that was rude.

Kami rolled her eyes with a huff. “Not gonna say anything?”

“Uh, sorry.” He shrugged. If he started off rude, then he might as well keep going. “Guess I wasn’t paying attention.”

“No, you weren’t.” She crossed her arms. “And how do you know my name?”

That confused Spirit. “We’re? In the same class?”

Kami looked embarrassed. “What, you know everyone in class?”

“Pretty much.”

More embarrassment from Kami. “W-Well, that’s weird! Nobody knows  _ everybody. _ ”

Spirit took a step forward. “Look, if you’re embarrassed because you don’t know who  _ I  _ am—”

“I’m not!” She bristled. “I don’t care who you are! You’re rude!”

“Okay, yeesh—”

“Kami!” A very small girl rushed up from around the corner, sliding to a stop beside Kami (who wasn’t very tall herself, but towered over the new girl). “Kami! Help me get this weird guy away from me!”

Before Kami could even ask, said weird guy calmly walked around the corner. Neither Spirit nor Kami seemed too terribly surprised that it was Stein. He waved with a nonchalant smile. “Hello, everyone. Quite the party here.”

Kami sighed, frustrated with both boys in the immediate vicinity, and turned to Stein. “Stop it.”

“Stop what?”

“Harassing my partner.”

“Oh, you mean Marie?” Stein tilted his head and somehow looked like a creepy doll instead of a confused puppy. “I wasn’t aware she had a partner. I’m especially surprised to see its you, Kami.”

Obvious anger flashed in both girls’ eyes, but Kami spoke first. “And what exactly do you mean by that, huh?”

Stein shrugged. “Your souls aren’t exactly compatible. I wouldn’t doubt you would be terrible in battle, and your resonance would likely be all over the place—”

“You’re an asshole!” The shorter girl, apparently Marie, yelled. “We would kick your ass in battle!”

Stein made a strange noise, and it took Spirit a moment to realize it was laughter. After a moment he calmed down.

“Would you like to prove that?”

An obvious challenge. That would likely end badly. Very, very badly.

“Uh, hey?” Spirit waved. “Maybe don’t do that?”

Kami looked over her shoulder and glared at him. “Actually, I’ve got a bone to pick with  _ you  _ too.”

Now this is definitely karma.

“Uh.” Spirit’s brain raced to find  _ anything  _ intelligent to say, and found nothing. Luckily (or maybe unluckily), somebody spoke for him.

“Yes, Spirit. Join the fight.” Stein nodded. “I’d like to see you fail, too.”

Spirit expected a lot of emotions in regards to that statement. Anger, bitterness, betrayal, maybe jealousy. Instead, he only felt disappointment. Some in Stein, for being the cocky asshole Spirit wasn’t expecting him to be, and some in himself, knowing that he probably  _ would _ fail.

“So? Are we doing this or what?” Marie was impatient, clearly wanting to fight and prove her worth.

“I’m down.” Kami glared at Stein. The young boy stared right back.

“Of course I’m in as well. I’m the aggressor, after all.” He smirked, and Kami growled.

“Uh.” Spirit croaked out, a little too loud. Everyone’s attention shifted to him. “Uh. We need a teacher. To supervise.”

Marie bounced. “Fine, I’ll get one!” And off she ran.

“If you’re not fighting, shoo.” Kami’s glare had moved to him.

Spirit was about to take up that offer, when it hit him. Stein was here, a part of this fight. This was his chance to prove himself. This was his chance to get the best, most interesting meister in school to be his partner.

Spirit found himself smirking, staring confidently back at Kami, and wondered where it came from. “I’m fighting, Kami.” His gaze flickered to Stein, and he saw that the young meister looked more amused than anything. Spirit found himself determined to prove himself. Even if he didn’t end up being Stein’s partner, he was going to show his worth.

Everyone went to their own sides of the courtyard. Spirit was psyching himself up. Kami had put her hair up in a ponytail, and was stretching and glaring at her competitors. And Stein was leaning against the wall, looking rather zoned out and uninterested.

Marie returned shortly after, not even slightly out of breath, with a teacher (and a few students) trailing behind her. She slid up to Kami, bounced a bit, and grinned. “You ready? We’re gonna kick their asses! We’re gonna do great! Fuck those guys!”

The teacher reminded Marie to watch her language, and found a spot where he could watch the fight, the students following close behind. Stein got up from his lean and took a few steps into the center of the courtyard, and Spirit suddenly felt a wave of anxiety. Was it too late to back out…?

“Alright you four.” The teacher clapped to get their attention. “Your N.O.T. students, so I doubt this will happen, but let’s try not to send anybody to the infirmary. Since it seems we have three teams, last man standing wins. Understood?”

Kami and Marie nodded once in affirmation, Spirit gave a quick thumbs up, and Stein didn’t respond at all. He didn’t even seem to be listening.

The teacher nodded in return. “Good. Begin whenever you’re ready.”

Marie bounced, and in a flash she had transformed; she  _ was  _ the hammer girl Spirit had heard about. He felt stupid that he hadn’t made the connection earlier.

Kami took a step forward and caught Marie, quickly switching from two hands to one. Stein seemed interested in Marie’s smooth transformation, but not in Kami’s wielding of her. He had yet to move an inch.

Spirit wasn’t sure what to do, but he didn’t get the chance before Kami was lunging at Stein, preparing a powerful swing with Marie.

Everyone seemed to brace themselves for the hit…

But it never came. Stein had ducked under Kami’s swing rather easily, his height having obviously helped him, and took two steps around Kami until he was behind her. She had just begun to turn around herself when Stein kicked her legs out from beneath her, knocking her onto her back. Not wasting a moment, he gave a strong kick to Kami’s hand, and sent Marie skidding across the courtyard towards Spirit.

Kami jumped up not a moment later, and Stein kept her busy to delay her rejoining her weapon partner.

Marie, realizing she needed to get back into the fight, detransformed, and Spirit saw his moment.

Once Marie was on her feet, Spirit swung at her with a bladed arm, and she stumbled backwards.

“Fuck, I forgot about you!” She cursed, regaining her footing, and swinging back at him with only her fist.

Spirit figured that just a simple punch wouldn’t do much, but he still blocked it with his bladed arm. They collided with a loud clang, and Marie hissed before punching again.

After her second punch, she took a step back, and Spirit again swung at her with his blade, this time succeeding and cutting her arm. She put a hand over the cut for only a moment, before looking back to Spirit and growling.

He saw, for just a second, a spark in her golden eyes. Not metaphorically.

A moment later, when she finally landed a punch on him, Spirit felt the electricity coursing through him, and swore he blacked out for a moment.

Her hit, with only her first, knocked him to the ground.

Spirit’s arm detransformed and he tried to catch his breath. Marie stood over him with a smug look. “Give up yet?”

He frowned. “Of course not.” And he kicked her in the stomach, knocking her down too.

Spirit stood up quickly, and ran to the other side of the courtyard, hoping to buy some time. As he ran, he spotted Kami and Stein still duking it out. Kami had landed at least one hit on the younger meister, proven by a bruise forming on his cheek, but Stein had left much more of a mark. 

Kami looked out of breath, had a bruise forming near her right eye, and her nose was bleeding. She was no match for Stein.

As rude as it seemed, Spirit realized that he was in the perfect position to land a hit on Kami. And if he did it right, he might be able to take her (and thus Marie) out of the fight entirely.

Not wanting Marie to electrocute him again, Spirit took his shot.

As Kami and Stein continued fighting, Spirit transformed one of his arms, trying his best to keep the blade at least a little dull. He waited a moment for an opening between the two, and then dashed between them, hitting Kami in the stomach and sending her flying backwards, towards Marie.

Feeling proud of himself, Spirit let out a whoop of victory, and jumped a bit.

And then another sort of electricity coursed through his body, which didn’t make sense, because Marie was on the other side of the courtyard with Kami. So who could’ve…?

Spirit fell to the ground and coughed up blood. It tasted metallic on his tongue. He rolled over to try and see what happened.

And above him stood Stein, blank-faced expression, one hand outstretched, blue sparks coming off of his hand.

“H-” He interrupted himself with another cough, “How did you… do that…?”

Stein stood up straight. “Why would I tell you?”

Before Spirit could reply, he heard a roar and somebody jumped over him.

Marie was back in the fight, and before anybody knew what was going on, she had landed a blow right in Stein’s face, and this time Spirit could see Marie’s own electricity all but surrounding her arm. 

Stein was knocked down for the first time in the fight, but not for long. He stood up, wiped the blood off his nose, and retaliated, punching Marie right back.

Spirit, meanwhile, shakily stood up and looked over his shoulder at Kami, who was still on the ground. Spirit figured she was out of the fight for good.

His attention was brought back to the fight by a cry of pain from Marie. She was kneeling on the ground, holding her nose. “What the  _ fuck _ , man!”

“This is a battle, Marie.” Stein said much too casually before once again wiping his bleeding nose on his sleeve.

She stood up and punched him in the jaw. No electricity. Just rage.

Spirit stumbled forward, a blade on each arm, and tripped on the way. He slashed both Stein and Marie near their stomachs, though it was only deep enough to bleed and not to rip out anyone’s guts.

Stein didn’t react immediately. Instead he punched Marie in the nose again, and she fell to the ground, this time, it seemed, for good.  _ Then  _ Stein held a hand to the cut on his stomach.

Spirit, still recovering from Stein’s mysterious hit from earlier, struggled to his feet. It was just him and Stein, now.

Truth be told, he didn’t want to fight Stein; he wanted to fight  _ with  _ Stein.

“Stein…” he took a breath. “I don’t have anything against you. We can leave this here.”

Stein didn’t respond for a moment. Then, he looked at Spirit, and smiled rather normally.

“I don’t have anything against you either.” He said. “I guess I underestimated you.”

And then he once again hit Spirit with his weird electricity attack, and Spirit fainted.

He woke up some time later in the infirmary. Sitting beside him, reading a book, was Stein, the only sign of damage from the fight being a splint on the bridge of his nose, and slight bruising around his eyes. Once Spirit’s eyes adjusted to the light of the room, he realized it was  _ his  _ book that Stein was reading.

“...You stole my book?” What a conversation starter.

Stein didn’t look up from the book. “Borrowed it. You have bad taste in literature.”

“Hey.” He frowned. “Fantasy is a good genre.”

Stein shrugged, closed the book, and set it on the nightstand. He finally made eye contact with Spirit.

“Remember when I said you needed to prove yourself before I’d consider you for a partner?”

Spirit remembered very well. It was all he had been thinking about for over a week now. He tried to look casual. “Yeah, I think so.”

Stein smirked, and held out his hand to shake. “I’d say you proved yourself enough. The only person who  _ really  _ did any damage to you in that fight was me. So, I’d like to offer you a partnership.”

He sounded smug, and part of Spirit hated it. But this was exactly what he was hoping for. He took Stein’s hand and shook it firmly. “Consider your offer accepted.”

Spirit was released from the infirmary a day later, and was quickly informed he had been unconscious for nearly two days, and thus had a lot of homework to make up. Marie and Kami had been patched up quicker and released before Spirit, and they avoided him in the halls. He felt their glares burning holes into the back of his head in class. 

Meanwhile, his and Stein’s relationship hadn’t really changed. In fact, Spirit barely saw his new meister at all over the following week. His family had always told him that partners usually lived together, spent most of their time together, and were friends for years, if not forever. Based on what he saw at school, it was true; Marie and Kami were near inseparable, for example. Why was  _ his  _ meister not hanging out with him? Stein wasn’t even at their dorm most of the time.

Spirit quickly ruled out the idea that Stein had lied about being partners, since  _ he  _ was the one to come to  _ him.  _ But it was still confusing, and honestly, a bit concerning as well. Had Spirit  _ already  _ done something wrong?

His doubts swirled around in his head until Saturday morning, when he awoke to Stein standing over him. Needless to say, Spirit was startled, and as a result he sprung out of bed and promptly fell on the floor.

“Get up and get ready.” Stein told him. “We’re going to train.”

As Stein left the room, Spirit noticed that the sun was barely starting to rise. His other roommate let out a loud snore, oblivious.

Spirit took his time getting ready, in part to spite Stein. Once he was all dressed and groomed, he headed downstairs to find Stein leaning against the wall, drinking coffee straight from the pot.

“Thanks for saving some for the rest of us.” Spirit said as he watched Stein down the last of it. The meister wiped his mouth on his sleeve and shrugged.

“I made it, I can do whatever I want with it.” He defended. “Now come on, you took way too long to get ready, so we’ll have less time now.”

The duo walked out from the dorms all the way up the stairs of the DWMA, and even further to the training forest. Spirit was suddenly very glad it was still early morning; the later in the day it was, the hotter it would be getting. For now, at least, it was still a reasonable temperature.

Stein lead Spirit to a clearing in the forest, far enough that they wouldn’t hear the bustling city, but close enough that they could still clearly see it and have a general direction of which way was home.

“Jeez, man, you didn’t tell me it was gonna be such a trek to get out here..." Spirit complained, slumping against a tree.

“Unless you’d rather go outside of the city into the barren desert wasteland, there’s nowhere else to go.” Stein looked back at him. “Suck it up.”

Spirit felt like he got a bit of whiplash from hearing someone go from saying  _ barren desert wasteland  _ to  _ suck it up  _ in a matter of seconds, but complied nonetheless. He’d much rather be in a scenic, shady forest than the blistering desert that surrounds Death City.

“Alright, alright.” Spirit stood up straight. “So what are we doing? We haven’t learned much that we can practice.”

“Maybe not in class.” Stein mentioned with a smug look. “But I’ve been doing my own research for about a year now, and you come from a famous weapon family, so I don’t doubt that you’re ahead of the curve. I saw in the battle against Marie and her meister.”

“Her meister’s name is Kami.”

“Good for her.” Stein chuckled.

“...How did you know about my family?” Spirit couldn’t help but ask. There were plenty of people he expected to know him and his family, but Stein was not one of them.

“Everything about you screams  _ “rich kid with a legacy to continue,” _ Spirit,” Stein explained, doing quotation signs around his poor imitation of his partner. “And, like I said, I've been researching weapons and meisters for about a year now, and there’s plenty of information about weapon families such as the Albarn’s.” He once again looked at Spirit from his spot in the center of the clearing. “Why, did you think it was a secret?”

“No, no. I know people know. I guess I just wasn’t expecting  _ you  _ to know.” Spirit shrugged. “Sorry if I seemed accusatory.”

“Why weren’t you expecting me to know?” Stein did the head-tilt thing again, the one that made him look like a creepy doll rather than a cute puppy. 

“Well, you  _ aren’t  _ from a well-known family, at least not well-known in the meister-weapon world.” Spirit felt worse the longer he prattled on. “I guess I’m just used to only other well-known families knowing me.”

Stein shrugged. “Being well-known is a hassle. I’d rather disappear.”

Both boys were quiet for a moment, and then Stein ran a hand through his hair before he looked at Spirit once more. “We’re stalling. We came out here to train. Let’s get started before we start losing daylight.”

“I’m more worried about it getting insanely hot.” Spirit groaned as he walked to the center of the clearing. Him and Stein stood face to face. “Alright,” Spirit put his hands in his pockets, “you’re the meister. What are we doing first?”

“We have to be in resonance, obviously.” Stein looked up at the clouds and the maniacal sun. “Otherwise I won’t be able to wield you. Open up your soul.”

Spirit shrugged. “I can try…?” 

Spirit didn’t really know how to…. do that. So he just thought really hard about all the cool things he and Stein would do as partners. How badly he wanted this to work. 

As he thought, he transformed; a beautiful scythe, with a cross-shaped snath, and the 2-foot-blade’s colors mixed and shimmered in the early morning light; a light grey coming up from the beard and a dark grey coming down from the chine, mixing with a rusty red around the toe. In weapon form, he was 5’7”, which was not much taller than his 5’3” human form, but  _ did  _ allow him to tower over a foot taller than Stein, who was a whopping 4’5”. 

Speaking of Stein, he had looked like he was expecting to wield Spirit easily, with minimal effort (if any). So needless to say, he was surprised when he caught Spirit and found the weapon almost too heavy to carry, causing him to fall forwards with the weight of it. Luckily, the meister caught himself before hitting the ground, and stood straight, holding Spirit out in front of him, his arms already feeling strained.

“I told you to open up your soul.” Stein muttered, bitterly.

“I did!” Came Spirit’s protest, his voice echoing out of his weapon form. “At least I’m pretty sure I did.”

“If I can’t carry you, then you must have messed up.”

Spirit rolled his eyes. “Have you ever thought that it might be you?”

“What?” Stein sounded genuinely surprised at the thought. “What do you mean?”

“What do you  _ mean,  _ what do I mean?” The face of Spirit appeared on his blade, and he looked annoyed. “I  _ mean  _ that maybe  _ you  _ are the problem. The reason we can’t resonate. You keep telling me to open up my soul, but have  _ you _ ?”

Stein was quiet, and it didn’t take long for Spirit to feel bad. He kept forgetting that, despite the boys intelligence, skill, and general attitude, he was still just a kid. Only nine. He was in way over his head.

Before Spirit could apologize, Stein finally ended the silence. He held Spirit out to the side, planting him in the soft dirt. “We’re done for the day. Sorry for getting you up so early.” He let go, and Spirit transformed back.

“We didn’t even do anything…?”

“I need to research more.” Stein interrupted. “Resonance, soul linking, so on and so forth—”

Spirit put a hand on his meister’s shoulder to stop his rambling. “I get the feeling there’s a better way, Stein.”

The young meister looked up at him. “What  _ else  _ could I possibly do other than research and train?”

“Is… is that seriously all you ever do?” Slight concern crossed Spirit’s face. “Don’t you have friends back home? What do you do for fun, or to relax?”

“I don’t have friends.” Stein quickly looked ahead and took a few steps forward, until Spirit wasn’t touching him anymore. “Having friends never ends well. I have acquaintances. Test subjects. In your case, weapon partners. People I know, nothing less.” He finally stopped walking after a few feet. “As for what I do for fun, for relaxation…” He paused, thinking, for a time that Spirit deemed much too long but decided to let Stein continue when he was ready. “I read. I research. I train. I dissect.”

“You what now?” Spirit had to ask.

Stein looked over his shoulder with easily the creepiest grin Spirit had seen on anyone’s face. “I dissect!” He said with way too much joy. “Dissection is a wonderful hobby of mine, it’s just so fascinating to see what truly makes something tick, you know? Not to mention the pure pleasure that comes from tearing something open and digging around in it’s organs—”

“Stop it! You’re gonna make me sick…” Spirit covered his mouth, truly feeling nauseated from the conversation. “I get it, dissection. Great. But your hobbies are weird and also not hobbies. Do you have  _ anything  _ that you like to do that’s just simple and easy fun?” Stein opened his mouth to answer but Spirit quickly cut him off by adding, “Not dissection.”

There was another long pause. “I read.”

“Read what?”

“Books.”

Spirit held his stare for a few long seconds before he got Stein to elaborate.

“Medical books, various -ologies, essays, research reports—”

“Then it doesn’t count.” Spirit stopped him. “Don’t you read, like, sci-fi or fantasy? Action, suspense, horror? I’d even accept historical fiction.”

Stein shrugged. “My mother used to read me poetry when I was younger.”

Spirit clapped. “Okay, that’s a good start!” He grabbed Stein’s arm and began leading him out of the woods. Stein dug his heels into the dirt, trying to get Spirit to stop.

“Stop dragging me.” Stein demanded. “Where are you going.”

“ _ We  _ are going to the library!”

“What, to read poetry?”

“Yeah, probably.” Spirit admitted. “But I’ve got something else I’d like to show you, too.”

Stein huffed and said nothing more. Spirit figured the boys’ curiosity had won over his bitterness, and the weapon smiled smugly to himself.

Once in the library, the duo sat on the floor in the poetry section, laying books across their crossed legs and silently reading to themselves.

Spirit looked up at his meister. Stein was immersed in a tiny, beaten-up book of Percy Shelley’s poems, and still managed to look bored. Spirit glanced back down at his own book of poetry from Lord Byron. “You know,” he started, trying to sound like what he imagined an aristocrat would, “poetry is meant to be seen and not read.”

Stein looked to Spirit, moving nothing but his eyes. “And?”

Spirit stood, holding the book in one hand. He struck a dramatic pose and began reading aloud from the page.

“So we’ll go no more a roving

So late into the night,

Though the heart be still as loving,

And the moon be still as bright.

For the sword outwears its sheath,

And the soul wears out the breast,

And the heart must pause to breathe,

And love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving,

And the day returns too soon,

Yet we’ll go no more a roving,

By the light of the moon.”

After he finished his recital, Spirit bowed deeply to his one-man audience. Nearby, a couple of girls had applauded, giggling, and as he waved to them, Spirit felt very impressed with himself.

Stein was not as enamoured. “Were you trying to seduce me or something?”

“What? No! Death, no.” He sat back down. “It’s not my fault Byron’s a romantic.”

“Romantic era poet, yes.” Stein looked back to his book. “But not all his poems are romantic ones. There are some that are very dark.”

“Yes, I know. I’m a fan.” Spirit waved the book around. “Whatever. It’s your turn.”

“I didn’t agree to this.” 

“Too bad! This relates to what I wanted to show you, I promise.” Spirit had planned on that being a lie, but after a bit further thought, he realized it was actually true, in theory at least. 

Regardless of how true it was or wasn’t, Stein clearly didn’t buy it. But, with an exaggerated sigh, Stein stood and began reading from the page.

“Art thou pale for weariness

Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth,

Wandering companionless

Among the stars that have a different birth,

And ever changing, like a joyless eye

That finds no object worth it’s constancy?”

Spirit clapped politely. “That was… existential.”

Stein nodded and sat back down. “It’s nicely worded. Easy to relate too.”

“How so?”

“Wandering companionless. No object worth it’s constancy. A joyless eye.” Stein paused, and for a moment, he almost looked sad. “All things I understand all too well.”

“But you aren’t companionless!” Spirit asserted. Stein looked at him, seemingly absent of emotion.

“Oh really? Name  _ one  _ person I could call a companion, I dare you.”

Without hesitation, Spirit looked him in the eye and said, “Me.”

For the second time that day, Stein was clearly surprised and confused. “...What?”

“ _ Me, _ Stein.” Spirit said again. “I’m not just your weapon partner, I’m a companion, a friend.” Spirit closed his book completely, and set it beside him. “That’s why I wanted to bring you here. You consider yourself a scientist, right?” The younger boy nodded. “Okay, well part of science is observation. I want to ask you to observe the library, the people especially. Tell me what you see.”

Stein did as Spirit asked. After a moment he spoke, slowly. “There’s not many people here. But most of the ones that are here are… in pairs. Meister-weapon pairs.”

“Exactly!” Spirit smiled. “Meisters and weapons don’t work like a business or something. It’s not one in charge of the other, it’s a  _ partnership _ . We have to work together to be able to do anything. And it’s easier to work together if we know eachother better, if we’re better friends.”

Stein was quiet. He had closed the book of poetry and seemed to be thinking over what Spirit had said. Spirit sat beside him and let him think. Eventually Stein began to nod.

“I understand.” He mumbled. “I… apologize. For jumping to the conclusion that our failure earlier was your fault.” He refused to make eye contact, instead fiddling with his sleeves. “I think I need to be doing a different kind of research.”

Spirit patted him on the back. “Indeed you do. How do you feel about coffee and sandwiches?”

“Indifferent.”

“Good enough for me, let’s go!” Spirit stood and dragged Stein up with him, who managed to pull his arm out of Spirit’s grip this time so he could put away their books.

“Where are you dragging me now?”

Spirit bounced impatiently. “To get food and bond, obviously. Use that smart brain of yours.”

The rest of the day was spent travelling to various locations all around Death City. The duo started at Deathbucks Café, but only managed to stay there for about five minutes, because Marie was working there, and Spirit had teased her about how she had already spent all her allowance, which led to her nearly breaking their table. They wasted little time getting out of there.

After that, they went to a sushi bar, which went much better. They stayed for nearly half an hour before the owner finally got sick of how loud Spirit was being and kicked them out.

While searching for something else to do, they came across another classmate of theirs, a young man who had taken on the stage name Razorhead. The three walked and talked casually for a bit until something Stein said set Razorhead off, and they were challenged with being kicked out of as many establishments in Death City as they could.

To Spirit’s surprise, Stein took the challenge, and the rest of the day was exactly that; being kicked out of restaurants and stores across the city. Sometimes literally, such as with Chupacabra’s. Spirit was pretty sure that Stein didn’t know what kind of place Chupacabra’s was.

Once they finally headed back to the dorms, Spirit had decided two things. One, that day was so far the best day of his life. And two, having Stein as a partner was going to be tough, but it was completely worth it.

The next month passed by in a flash. Stein and Spirit went out into the forest to train nearly every day, but Spirit made certain that they also spent time just hanging out and relaxing, to balance things out. Neither of the boys cared too much about their schoolwork, and often got it done at the very last second, if even that. While the two became better friends, they also became better partners. The process of getting to a stable resonance was a little slow, but once they got it, there was an epiphany and a rush of power, and from then on they only got better.

Stein was determined to never have this problem again. Spirit didn’t entirely understand why, and he couldn’t get a straight answer out of Stein. The meister just said he wanted to be flexible and stronger, and Spirit slowly realized that Stein was pushing himself much harder than he should be.

“I think we should take a break from training.” He tried to suggest one morning. 

“Just because  _ you _ want to sleep all day doesn’t mean we shouldn’t practice.”

“No, no.” He shook his head, “not for me. For you.”

“I get eight hours of sleep.”

“It’s not about sleep, Stein. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

Stein, ever predictable, tilted his head in the creepy-puppy way he does. “You think I’m going to hurt myself? How so?”

Spirit runs a hand through his short hair. He’d been thinking about growing it out now that he was away from his family. “Yes, I… I think you’re going too far. Like, I know you want to get stronger, but that takes time. You’re trying to get even more ahead than you already are, and you’re trying to do it faster than anyone else. I don’t see the point. You’re going to get there soon enough, why the rush?”

Stein looked at the floor, and took a deep breath in through his nose. “I’m not trying to get ahead, Spirit. I’m trying to catch up.”

“What? Stein, like I said, you’re miles ahead of the other meisters in our class—”

“In some ways, yes.” He nods. “But in so many ways, I’m behind. We only just got into a stable resonance a couple weeks ago; most pairs can do that right away. Not to mention I’m still not good at wielding you as a weapon. I may be able to use my own wavelength to an extent, and know tons about the science behind it all, but when it comes to the basics, I’m lacking.” He finally looked back up and met Spirit’s eyes. “I’m pushing myself because I need to get on everyone else’s level, and I need to get there now. If I wait around for it to happen over time, I’ll be behind my entire life.”

“That’s not how it works.” Spirit sighed. “But I see your point. You beat me, Marie, and Kami pretty much one-on-one, yet the two of us together can barely break a tree branch.”

“Exactly. If we were to fight as a team against Marie and her meister at the point we are right now, we’d get destroyed.”

Spirit stayed quiet as he looked out the window at the school in the distance. “Do you think… maybe it’s a sign that we  _ shouldn’t  _ be partners?”

“No.” Stein replied, nearly immediately. “It just means we need to work harder. Now come on, your pointless worrying made us late, again.” With that, Stein left the room to make a quick pot of coffee for himself, and a single cup that was more cream and sugar than coffee for Spirit.

Speaking of, the weapon felt silly for worrying over Stein like that. He was a friend and weapon partner, not the boys’ mother. And that comment about if they should be partners? Spirit hadn’t felt this embarrassed in weeks. He hurried to get dressed and get downstairs so they could leave and forget about this already.

Their usual routines completed, the two left. But Stein didn’t lead them to their usual training spot in the clearing. Instead, Stein went further into the woods, until they came out the other side.

Spirit had never been down here before. There was a brick wall that was only a foot or so high, looking down over the city. Though the wall looked small, when Spirit looked over the side, he ended up taking three big steps backwards. The other side of the wall was easily a two-story drop, maybe more.

Stein, on the other hand, climbed the small wall and stood on top of it. “Okay, lets get started. Transform.”

“On that thing?” The weapon croaked out. Stein nodded. “Nope. No way. You saw the drop right? I’m not going up there.”

“Once you’re in weapon form, it’s very hard for you to get hurt. You won’t fall, but even if you did you’d be fine.” Stein crossed his arms. “Stop being a baby.”

“What's the point of this?” Spirit got closer and looked over the edge again. “It just seems to risky. Even if  _ I’ll _ be fine, what if  _ you  _ fall?”

“I won’t fall.” Stein said shortly, beginning to lose his patience. “And the point is this will force us to resonate better. The balance and the high stakes are exactly why I chose this place. Now hurry up, we’re losing daylight.”

Spirit gulped and forced himself to look away from the drop. “Never make me do this again.” He transformed, the energy jumping over to Stein, who caught him before he was completely transformed, spinning him around slightly.

Once Spirit was fully transformed the two stood quietly for a moment, making sure they were actually in resonance. Then, Stein took off running.

“Whoah, whoah, whoah, what are you doing!" Spirit yelled from the scythe’s blade. “Slow down, we might fall!”

“That’s the point, Spirit, now stop worrying.” Stein grumbled, and used Spirit to attack a nearby trees’ branches — managing to cleanly cut them off in one swing for the first time.

“H-Hey! We did it!” Spirit cheered. “Maybe this isn’t so bad, then…”

“I told you so.” Stein smirked as he cut another nearby tree. “Not so scared now, huh?”

“Yeah… I guess not.” Spirit smiled to himself, choosing to see the comment as an actual comment on his improvement, and not a jab at his fears.

Stein and Spirit continued running along the wall, slicing trees, and even managing to do a couple tricks. Eventually they got a little too far from their starting point, and so Stein spun around and ran back.

On the run back, they passed a tree with a branch overhanging, and on that branch was an apple. Stein only noticed it when he was right by it, and didn’t get to swing at it, so he spun around to run at it again—

And slipped.

And fell.

Down the two-story drop.

Desperate and, for once, afraid, Stein tried to stick Spirit’s blade into wall to at least slow his descent. Spirit was terrified, for himself and for Stein. He had heard of weapons changing their forms slightly, so he tried to make himself have more blades that could stick into the crack and stop them falling, but it wouldn’t work.

A little more than halfway down, Spirit’s blade struck a rock it couldn’t break and stopped, and for a moment Spirit was relieved. Then he realized that, when his blade hit the rock, it jostled Stein and caused him to lose his grip, and fall the rest of the way by himself.

Even in his weapon form, Spirit could hear the thud, the crack, the cry of pain that the brave young meister couldn’t help letting out.

Spirit was already crying, and wracked his mind for a way down without getting hurt himself. He remembered what Stein had said at the beginning of their training; if he were to fall in weapon form, he’d be fine. But he  _ was  _ in weapon form, and he was stuck.

Spirit could only barely see Stein, but he felt his heart stop for a moment when he saw blood.

Barely thinking about it, Spirit went back into his human form, and immediately felt himself falling. He scratched his hands trying to grab the wall, and the ground was coming up quick beneath him—

Six feet before hitting the ground, Spirit went into weapon form. He landed with a clatter, a little dizzy, but other than his scratched hands he was no worse for the wear. He made it down okay. 

Shifting back, Spirit could barely see, there were so many tears in his eyes. Rubbing his face, he made his way to Stein’s side.

“St-Stein?! C’mon, are you awake? Please, p-please be okay…”

With blurry vision, Spirit looked over Stein and suppressed a gag. The younger boys’ left leg was clearly broken and bleeding. Spirit figured Stein must have tried to land on his feet. His other leg wasn’t bleeding, but didn’t look great. Stein’s eyes were closed, but he was breathing, albeit heavily, and mumbling something incoherent.

“Help.” Spirit thought aloud, unable to look away from Stein. “Help, we need help.  _ Help!”  _ He started to shout. “Someone, please help!”

Not even registering how loud he was being, Spirit tried to think of another way out. There was a staircase nearby that led up to the top of the forest. He could carry Stein up the stairs and back to the school, but it would hurt him. Or, he could wait here for help, but Stein might die….

Not willing to lose his friend, Spirit took a deep, shaky breath and slid his arms under Stein’s body, then lifted. Stein’s breath hitched, and he looked to be holding back a cry of pain, but after a moment he was back to the heavier breathing from before.

“Okay.” Spirit mumbled to himself, looking at the steep stairs. “Okay. You’re gonna be fine, buddy. I promise.”

Spirit tried to move as quickly as possible and as gently as possible at the same time. He bolted up the stairs, jostling Stein a bit, and when he got to the top he readjusted his grip and ran again. The forest was uphill, but it was so in a way you barely noticed. Soon enough, the DWMA was in sight.

Outside the school, looking around, was a teacher; the same one that had been the supervisor to the fight that sparked his partnership with Stein. Spirit, mentally and physically exhausted, called out to him. The teacher looked over and gasped.

“Mr. Albarn, come with me, we have to get him to the infirmary!” He ordered, dragging Spirit by the arm.

“Where do you think I was going?” The weapon croaked out, before falling silent. His voice hurt.

The infirmary wasn’t too far a run from where they had entered the building. The nurse had Spirit set Stein down on a bed and then shooed him and the teacher out of the room; this was a serious injury, and the room couldn’t be crowded.

Spirit sat outside the infirmary on a bench, curled up and trying to be calm. The teacher sat beside him.

“Mr. Albarn.”

“Hm?”

“How did Mr. Stein get hurt?”

Spirit cleared his throat; it still burned. “We were tra-training. On th-the little stone wall. A-At the edge of the forest.”

“That’s a very dangerous spot.” The teacher scolded.

“I didn’t pick it.”

“Why are you training?”

“Stein’s behind in the basics.” Spirit repeated his partner’s reasons from that morning. It felt so long ago. “He wants to catch up. Get stronger.”

The teacher nods. “Thats reasonable, but you two are N.O.T. students. You don’t need to push yourselves this hard. And Mr. Albarn, as his weapon partner, it’s  _ your  _ responsibility to make sure he doesn’t do stupid things like this that could get him hurt.” He paused, then rephrased. “It isn’t your fault. It’s his own. But I’m letting you know for future reference that you do have the power to stop him. Training, battles, anything involving both halves of the pair must be a decision made as a team. Otherwise, it isn’t a healthy partnership.”

Spirit stayed silent, but the teacher’s words resonated within him. Up until now, it hadn’t felt like a partnership. It felt like a fragile internship. Despite Spirit’s attempts to bond with Stein, their friendship was as weak as their resonance.

The nurse came out from the infirmary some time later, putting a hand on Spirit’s shoulder. “He’s awake. He’d like to see you.”

Inside, Stein was laying on the bed, color starting to return to his pale face. He looked at Spirit for a long moment, then smiled. “Told you that you’d be okay.”

“You didn’t have a plan for when  _ you  _ fell.” Spirit grumbled.

“I knew I’d be fine.”

“That’s a lie and you know it.”

“Well I’m fine now. I’ll be out of here in two weeks.”

“No less than a month.” The nurse interjected.

Stein chuckled. “I know my body, ma’am. Two weeks.”

“Doesn’t matter when you get out,” Spirit resisted the urge to pull his hair out. “We’re never doing anything like this again.”

Stein frowned. “And I don’t get a say in this?”

“Well,  _ I  _ didn’t get a say in going to the wall in the first place.” Spirit glared at his partner. “As a matter of fact, I haven’t had much of a say in anything regarding this partnership, other than where we go for lunch! So, you don’t get a say in this.”

“Spirit, this is unreasonable. A decision like that just restrains our potential—”

“You could have  _ died, _ Stein!” Spirit shouted, standing up. “Being stronger, catching up, restraining our potential, that’s- that’s- that’s all  _ bullshit!  _ It’s not worth you getting hurt like this!”

The two boys stared at eachother in silence. Spirit expected Stein to retaliate, but he didn’t say a word. Eventually, Spirit sighed and rubbed his eyes.

“A partnership isn’t supposed to work like this, Stein.” He stated, looking out the window. “It’s not something you can do on your own. We have to work together, as a team. That includes making decisions that affect the both of us. If we get into trouble, we do it together. If we fight a kishin, or a witch, or our classmates, we do it together.”

When Stein remained silent, Spirit finally looked back at him. “Just because I’m a weapon doesn’t mean I’m some puppet you can control. You can’t pick what you like about me and throw out the rest. I’m willing to work with you. I want to be your partner, and your friend. But you have to do the same.”

Stein again did not respond. Once Spirit had finished, he looked away and seemed to be thinking hard. Spirit sighed, patted Stein on the shoulder, and left the infirmary.

Two weeks later, Stein was still in the infirmary, despite his claims otherwise. Spirit visited him often, and the two talked mostly about things unrelated to their partnership. Spirit would bring lots of books, poetry and otherwise, and Stein would poke fun at Spirit’s taste in genre, but read them nonetheless. Spirit also brought Stein his homework that would be due for his classes, but he never actually did them.

One day, shortly after Stein discovered he wouldn’t be getting out as quickly as he had hoped, there was a breakthrough.

“Spirit.” He had said, interrupting the weapon’s rant about Harry Potter. “I’m… sorry.”

Spirit looked over, confused. “What for?”

Stein shrugged. “Everything. Not giving you a choice in anything. Getting hurt. Being an asshole.”

“First of all, watch your language.” Spirit put a bookmark in the Harry Potter book before looking back to Stein. “Secondly, I forgive you. But I’m not putting up with it anymore. If we want this partnership to work, we need to try harder to get along.”

“No.” The meister shook his head. “You’ve already been trying hard to get along with me, and I haven’t been reciprocating. So…” He looked up at Spirit, determined. “ _ I’m _ going to try harder. I want this partnership to work.”

With that, Stein held out a hand. Specifically, his pinkie. “I promise to do better, to work as a team, and to make sure, as your friend and meister, that you don’t get hurt because of my actions.”

Spirit looked at the extended pinkie finger and smiled, wrapping his own around it, locking their hands together. “I promise to keep trying, to be patient, to work as a team, and to make sure, as your friend and weapon, that you don’t get hurt because of anyone’s actions. Including your own.”

After a moment of looking at their intertwined pinkie fingers, Stein smiled.

The next day, Spirit went about his usual routine. He got up at a reasonable time, got dressed, had breakfast, and went to class. At the end of class he asked for a copy of the homework for Stein, and left to go to the balcony, where he planned to get some more reading done before going to visit Stein for lunch.

It was on the balcony where his routine was interrupted.

“Hey! Spirit!” A voice called, and the boy in question looked around. Running up to him was a familiar, bouncy blonde.

“Marie?” He hadn’t spoken to her or Kami since their fight a couple months prior. He had thought she held a grudge against him, so he was surprised she was coming up to him so cheerfully.

Marie stood in front of Spirit, hands folded behind her back, smiling in what Spirit felt would be best described as a professional way. “Hi, how are you? How’s Stein? In the infirmary still, right? Great, anyway—” she stretched, looking around, not giving Spirit enough time to respond to any of her questions. “So, here’s the thing. Kami and I want a rematch. We were gonna wait until Stein was out of the infirmary, but Kami’s tired of waiting, so… we’re challenging just you.”

Spirit blinked, taking a moment to process everything Marie just told him. “Uh. Me versus the two of you?”

“Yep!” Marie nodded once. “So? You accept? Or are you a coward?”

“I am not a coward.” Spirit told her. “But I also don’t really want to fight, especially not without a meister. Last time was hard enough.”

“So you  _ are  _ afraid! Nice! I love it when people are afraid of me.” Marie bounced around. “People don’t think I’m intimidating ‘cause I’m so small. But anyway, you know if you don’t accept the challenge you’re basically just surrendering, right?”

“I’m not surrendering, I’m just… picking my battles carefully.”

“I think you just don’t want to lose to a couple of girls.” Marie twirled her hair on one finger. “Men are terrible like that sometimes. Oh-so masculine that they won’t hit a girl, but really it’s that they don’t want to be hit back.”

“Marie, me and Stein  _ both  _ have hit you before.” Spirit sighed, and then realized how bad that sounded.

“And now you don’t want to lose your winning streak, so you’re giving it up entirely!”

Spirit groaned, laying his face in his book. “Fine. Fine! Fine. I’ll fight you and Kami. Happy now?”

Marie bounced, smiling professionally. “Yes, very. Now come on! Kami’s waiting!” She grabbed his arm and started to pull him up.

“Wait, wait, right now?” Spirit stood, marking his page and closing his book. 

“Yeah, right now, when else?”

Spirit pried Marie’s arm off of his own and sighed. “Okay, okay. Makes sense. Lead the way.”

Marie led Spirit down to the front of the school, by the big stairs. Standing in the center of the courtyard was Kami, and leaning against a nearby wall was a teacher.

“So that’s why you were so adamant.” Spirit grumbled. “You had it set up already.”

“Yeah,” Marie laughed, “Kami told me not to leave you alone until you said yes. Good luck! You’re gonna need it.” With that, she skipped over to Kami.

Kami herself was already prepared for battle; her hair was up in a ponytail, her jacket tossed aside. She had a serious look on her face, and made intense eye contact with Spirit.

“My real grudge is with Stein.” She stated. “But if you’re all I can get, then so be it.”

That seemed to be the signal, since right after she said that Marie transformed, landing in Kami’s hand. Spirit, now that he had a partner, was in the mindset of full transforming, and had to remind himself that Stein wasn’t here; this was a 2v1 match. He partially transformed his arm and hoped for the best.

The battle was fast-paced. Once Spirit had transformed his arm, Kami came rushing at him. In the blink of an eye, she was right in front of him, landing a powerful blow with Marie. With Spirit stunned, she snuck around the back of him and slammed Marie into his back, sending him tumbling forward.

Shaking his head, Spirit jumped up, narrowly avoiding a third hit from Marie and Kami. He swung his blade near Kami’s face, and again at the arm holding Marie, only landing the latter attack. Realizing just how close he was, Spirit stabbed Kami’s shoulder, eliciting a cry of pain from her, and shoved her backwards.

With one hand Kami held Marie, and with the other she held her bleeding shoulder. She stood still for a moment, and Spirit searched his mind for what to do next.

Kami let out a long breath. “Okay, let’s end this.”

Spirit, concerned, took a step back. “Sure, let me just knock you down real quick and I can go grab lunch.”

Kami grinned. “Sounds good.” She lunged forward, Marie at her side, a familiar electricity surrounding them.

Remembering how their last battle went, Spirit tried to block with his blade, but it was no use. Marie’s hammer collided with his blade with a reverberating  _ clang _ , and her electricity, amplified by her meister’s wavelength, went surging through him.

Spirit stumbled backwards, drifting in and out of consciousness. He distantly tasted something metallic, and realized a moment later it was blood. His ears were ringing, and once he felt like he might be regaining his balance, Kami hit his head with the handle of Marie, sending him pummelling to the ground.

Too dazed to get up, Spirit detransformed, and the teacher called the victor; Kami and Marie. 

Seeing that she was still bleeding, Kami was sent to the infirmary. Some students tried to carry Spirit there as well, but he then remembered: Stein was at the infirmary. If Stein saw him like this, he’d surely think he was weak. Their partnership, finally showing some progress, would be over.

Stumbling to his feet, Spirit assured the teacher he was fine, and started heading down the large stairs, back to the dorms. He could fix himself up at home. Take a nap, put on some bandaids, drink some tea, and he’d be fine. 

Stein didn’t have to know.

Spirit’s body ached in ways it never had before. It was over a week before he felt fully well again. What was worse, however, was that ever since the fight, Marie and Kami had been all but taunting him. In class, in the halls, around town. He kept seeing them out of the corner of his eye, watching him. 

Spirit wasn’t sure if it was to mock him, to get him paranoid, or a challenge to incite a rematch. Whatever the intention, it succeeded in one; Spirit quickly became terrified of getting jumped by the duo. 

Nearing on two weeks after the fight, Spirit’s paranoia got him so shaken up, he skipped class and went home. He didn’t go for the next three days, and only came back because a teacher came to make sure he was still alive, and when she saw he was, she all but dragged him back. Spirit went all day feeling eyes burning holes into his back. He had only made things worse.

The next day, Stein was released from the infirmary. Spirit hadn’t known, so the sight of Stein sitting on the bed looking at him with an off-putting, scientific curiosity was startling.

“Hello, Spirit.” He smiled, and it sent shivers down Spirit’s spine. “You stopped visiting me. And word around the coffee pot is you’ve been skipping class.”

Spirit gulped, running a hand through his hair. Now was when he would normally cut it back again, but he had started to like it long, and figured he would let it continue to grow. Maybe he could put it in a ponytail someday. With a quiet breath, Spirit shut the door and sat down on his bed. “The saying is word around the water cooler, not coffee pot.”

“I prefer coffee to water. And you’re avoiding the question.”

“I’m sorry I stopped visiting you.” Spirit said, and he meant it. In all the terror of Marie and Kami following him, Spirit hadn’t thought to check up on his friend.

“Why did you stop?”

Spirit didn’t have an excuse, so he said nothing. After a few moments, once Spirit’s silence became an obvious choice, Stein spoke up again. “Did I do something wrong?”

Spirit looked over at him. “What?”

“Did I do something wrong?” He repeated. The young meister’s eyebrows furrowed as he searched his memories for something he did that made Spirit upset. “Or maybe I said something? I promised I would try to be a better friend, did I mess it up already?”

“No!” Spirit shot up, standing over Stein and putting his hands on his shoulders. “No, no, Stein… you did nothing wrong. Stein, Franken, I—” Spirit stopped. He couldn’t tell Stein the truth. What would he think of him then?

“Then what, Spirit?” Stein’s gaze bore into Spirit’s very soul. Quite literally, not that Spirit was aware. “...Something’s obviously gotten you agitated. And… afraid?” Concern leaked into Stein’s voice, and Spirit stepped back, once again sitting down on his bed. In contrast, Stein leaned forward. “Spirit. What happened while I was in the infirmary?”

“Nothing. Just… watched too many horror movies.” Spirit shrugged.

“Don’t lie to me!” Stein hadn’t meant to yell, but it was too late. Spirit looked to his meister, shocked. Stein deflated, leaning back and rubbing his eyes with the base of his palms. “Spirit, please. We promised we would try to be better friends and partners. I’m trying to do that, to be more open to you, and more accepting of you. But  _ you  _ need to tell me when something is wrong, so we can solve it. Together.”

_ Together.  _ Spirit hadn’t thought of fixing things together. He felt silly, and found himself laughing. As he wiped the tears off his face, Spirit questioned what had made him want to hide in the first place. They promised eachother they would be there for eachother. Teams work together to fix problems. That’s why it’s called  _ teamwork _ .

With a deep breath, Spirit explained everything. The routine, Marie’s challenge, Kami’s trap, the horrible defeat, the fear of rejection, the near-constant hurting, the apparent stalking, the paranoia, the skipping classes. Once he was finished, Stein’s eyes were hard and cold, and for a moment, Spirit was worried he had trusted too much in Stein too quickly.

“A shame.” Stein shook his head. “Marie had such potential. Her meister, eh, she’s average. But Marie was quite the talent. What a shame indeed.”

“What do you mean, what a shame?” Spirit was more relieved Stein wasn’t mad at  _ him,  _ but still worried about what would come next.

“Nothing. It was probably her meister’s influence, anyway.” Stein shrugged, and looked to Spirit. “I’m glad you told me.”

Spirit smiled, tension leaving his body. Stein, after a moment, smiled back.

“So you cured yourself of a concussion?” Stein asked.

Spirit rubbed his head. “I think so. Still hurts from time to time.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Stein shook his head and stood. “Let me look at it. I’m good with this kind of stuff.”

As Stein looked through a bag he kept under his bed of medical supplies he stole from the infirmary, Spirit laughed. “You plan to be a doctor?”

“I plan to be a scientist. Medical knowledge is always helpful, though.”

“You can have a doctor title as a scientist.” Spirit commented, trying to get a peek at what was in the bag and seeing mostly tools that he figured were for dissection. “Come to think of it, Doctor Stein sounds pretty cool.”

Stein smirked, grabbing what he needed and turning back to Spirit. “I guess it does.”

The next day, the two went to class together. Spirit felt infinitely better, and Stein was more chipper than usual.

As they left class, Spirit realized he hadn’t seen Marie or Kami yet. He figured they would be all over him and Stein, wanting another fight now that Stein was out of the infirmary, but there was no sign of them. Not during class, not as he left, not in the halls. Spirit tried not to be concerned, but something in the back of his head was screaming that something was wrong.

After lunch, there was an announcement over the loudspeaker.

“Franken Stein, Spirit Albarn, to the Death Room. I repeat, Franken Stein and Spirit Albarn, please report to the Death Room.”

The two boys looked at eachother, having frozen in their tracks. In the halls, all the other students had stopped what they were doing to look at them. Some were laughing, or gossiping.

Spirit wasn’t listening to the whispers or hushed laughter, however. He looked at Stein, and the blank look on his partners face was the last piece of the puzzle.

“Stein,” Spirit hissed through his teeth. “What did you do.”

“Nothing that didn’t need to be done.” Stein said, all too casually as he walked away from Spirit towards the Death Room.

The Death Room was not what Spirit had imagined it to be. For one, it was huge; much bigger than it looked from the outside. There was a guillotine archway that seemed to stretch forever. Unnamed graves scattered across the endless sands. It was not a room Spirit wanted to spend much time in.

At the end of the archway, in what Spirit assumed was the middle of the room, was a platform with a mirror. In front of that mirror stood Lord Death.

He towered over the two boys. An entity of all black, save for his mask. A mask that, despite being simple and borderline childish, struck fear into Spirit’s heart.

“Hey, hey! What’s up! How are you two doing today, hm? Good, I hope!” Lord Death bounced as much as his voice did as he spoke, and pretty much all of Spirit’s fear was instantly evaporated.

“I’m doing well, sir.” Stein answered, a small, polite smile on his face. “How are you?”

“I’m terrific, thank you for asking!” Lord Death seemed to bounce more and arms with large, glove-like hands appeared and clapped together. “Now! Would you two like some tea? Or coffee? I got some recently, a classmate of yours, Joe Buttataki, recommended it to me. It’s local!”

“Um.” Was all Spirit managed to say. This was not going as he was expecting at all.

“I’d love some coffee, thank you. Spirit will probably have some too, assuming you have a mountain of cream and sugar to spare.” Stein answered for them, looking over at Spirit with a teasing smile. The weapon returned it with a pout.

“Oh ho ho! Wonderful! I like cream and sugar in my coffee too, having it black is just too bitter!” Lord Death continued to talk, mostly to himself, as a small table and coffee cups were set up.

Once all three were set up with their coffee, Spirit found his voice. “Ah, Mr. Lord Death, sir…?” He mentally smacked himself for the excessive formalities. “I was hoping I could ask, uh. We were called here presumably because we did something wrong. Why are you being so… I-I don’t know, courteous? Host-like? Shouldn’t we be being punished?”

Stein kicked him under the table, and Lord Death took a long sip of his coffee. “Well,” he began, and then paused for another long moment. “If my memory is accurate, this is your first time in the Death Room, and meeting me, correct?” The duo nodded, and Lord Death nodded back. “I like to give people a good first impression. Believe it or not, some people are very scared of me!” He laughed, swirling around his coffee. “But who could blame them, really? In the old days, I was pretty terrifying.”

“Oh, well. That’s-That’s nice of you. Thank you for the coffee.” Spirit felt bad for asking. 

Lord Death patted him on the head, a little rough. “You’re welcome! Thank you for coming! But you did remind me that we came here for a reason, and it’s about time we get to the bottom of that reason. Mr. Stein?”

“Hm?” Stein looked up from where he had been tearing apart a coffee filter, clearly having not been listening.

“Can I ask where you were last night?”

Stein looked back to his coffee filter. “In my dorm, with Spirit and that other guy.”

“You mean our roommate, Mark?” Spirit deadpanned.

“Yeah, him.” Stein nodded. “He’s boring. Deep sleeper.”

“Nevermind Mark.” Lord Death interrupted. “You see, something odd happened last night. An illegal fight between students.” He took a sip of his coffee before continuing. “I’m sure you’ve heard of them. Kamila Queen and Marie Mjolnir?”

Spirit sunk in his seat. “Y-Yeah, we know them.”

“Who’s Kamila?” Stein asked.

Spirit whacked his arm. “Marie’s meister! She’s literally in our class!”

“Oh, yeah.” He chuckled. “Sorry, she’s rather forgettable. So they fought eachother?”

“No.” Lord Death sighed. “They were attacked. Ended up badly wounded in the infirmary. And they claim their attacker was you, Stein.”

Stein stopped messing with the coffee filter and leaned back in his chair. “Curious.”

“Indeed.” Lord Death nodded. “So you see, this is rather serious, and we’re going to need a better alibi from you than just your word.”

“I’m sure Spirit saw me.” Stein looked over at his partner.

“Uh. I. I don’t know? I was asleep, I-I got a concussion recently, and I’ve been super paranoid, so getting a good night's sleep is important..." Spirit had to force himself to stop rambling.

“Then it seems,” Lord Death set his cup down. “Then we are in quite the pickle, pumpernickel. It’s your word against theirs, and Miss Queen in particular is quite adamant that it was you.”

Stein leaned back further and sighed. “Yeah, it was me.” 

Spirit put his head in his hands. “Why? Why would you do this?”

“Because they did the same to you.”

Stein’s reasoning got Spirit to sit up and look at him. “What?”

“They challenged you to a fight they knew you’d lose while I was in the infirmary to make themselves feel better. Sure it was technically legal, but it wasn’t a fair fight. They didn’t even want to fight you, they wanted  _ me _ . So… I gave them what they wanted.” Stein grinned up at the ceiling. “Not my fault that they’re weak.”

“Maybe so, but you still must be punished for this.” Lord Death nodded, solemn.

Spirit stood up, knocking his chair over in the process. “Please don’t expel him, Lord Death! This all started with me, so if anything it’s my fault!”

“No it’s not, you’re an idiot, sit down.” Stein sat normally in his chair again. “If I get expelled, then I get expelled. We’ll keep in touch and you get a partner who doesn’t do this kind of stuff.”

“I don’t want a different partner, Stein! I fought to be your partner, and I’ll fight to keep you here!”

“Now, now, settle down, both of you!” Lord Death’s voice commanded the two of them and both looked to him. “This is a first offense, no one is getting expelled. If it becomes a frequent occurrence, then we’ll have to consider it, but for now don’t even worry about it!”

Spirit let out a sigh of relief, and Stein frowned. “But there’s still some kind of punishment, I’m sure. Marie’s partner isn’t one to let go of a grudge.”

“Her name is Kami.” Spirit reminded his partner.

“Gesundheit.”

Spirit sighed and sat back down.

“Yes…. Miss Queen and Miss Mjolnir both wanted some form of justice.” Lord Death nodded, then snapped his fingers. “I feel a remedial lesson is appropriate!”

“A what?” The duo asked.

“A remedial lesson!” Lord Death repeated. “You don’t have to, Mr. Albarn, but Mr. Stein you will be going to the graveyard tonight.”

That night, as a teacher led Stein to the graveyard, Spirit followed from a distance. Stein didn’t want him to come, but he had just risked getting  _ expelled _ so he could avenge Spirit. No way was the weapon letting them split up now.

The task was simple enough; it was basically a game of capture the flag in a graveyard. Except that Stein could fall into a trap, or an open grave, and so forth.

Once the teacher had left, Spirit jumped out of his hiding spot and tapped Stein on the shoulder. “Boo!”

Stein didn’t even flinch. “You aren’t a very good stalker, Spirit.”

“You knew I was coming?”

“Of course I did. I knew you wouldn’t listen to me, and I saw you following me about five minutes into the walk here.”

“Oh.” Spirit messed with his hair. “Well, uh. Let’s capture that flag and get on home! If we get done quick enough, we can be back in time for dinner! I heard Skylen’s making his famous tacos tonight!”

Five hours, twelve traps, three open graves, and a lot of aimless wandering later, the duo was no closer to finding the flag, and had no chance of getting any tacos.

Spirit, covered in dirt from repeated tripping into graves, banged his head against a tree. “This. Is. Impossible.”

Stein leaned against Spirit’s back. “Agreed. I think that’s the point.”

“So what? Lord Death expected you to be trapped here forever?”

“No. The lesson is over either when we find the flag, or at dawn.”

“Ugh.” Spirit banged his head against the tree again.

“Don’t give yourself another concussion.” Stein reminded, looking around. Suddenly, he stood up straight.

Spirit looked over his shoulder. “What? Do you see something?”

“...Yes. Well, kind of. I… sense something.” Stein squinted as he spoke. “There’s… a soul wavelength coming from over there.”

“Really?” Spirit was concerned for a moment, who would be in a graveyard at this time of night, but then sprung up. “Maybe it’s a teacher, guarding the flag!”

“I can’t tell from here…” Stein rubbed his eyes. “But I suppose it’s worth looking into.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go! I wanna get the hell out of here!”

Spirit grabbed Stein’s arm and began running off before tripping over a tree root. Stein helped him and up and led the way from there.

Soon, they could see a building in the distance.

“Maybe it’s one if those places where they keep dead bodies for like, science reasons.” Spirit suggested.

“A morgue.”

“Yeah.” Spirit shuddered. “Gross.”

“Interesting.”

Spirit looked at his partner. “You’re weird.”

“Maybe so, but that’s not what I found interesting. The soul I sensed is in that building.”

“Ew.”

“You need to get more used to this stuff. You’re a weapon.”

They continued their walk to the building. There was very little light, and Spirit fell into another hole, this time getting dirt in his mouth.

“If you ever get in trouble again,” Spirit spat out more dirt, “I’m not coming with you.”

Finally they reached the building. Stein stopped at the door.

“Spirit,” he said, grabbing his partner’s arm. “I don’t think it’s a teacher in there.”

“What do you mean?” Spirit asked, and the doors flew open.

In the doorway stood a monster. It seemed to have been human once, but no longer. It was disfigured, hunched over and muscled. It’s head seemed too small for it’s body, and it had a long tongue. It’s chest and what little clothes it had were covered in blood.

It looked at the duo with beady eyes, seeming to study them. After a moment, it grinned.

**_“Fre….sh…. me...at…”_ ** It hissed, taking a step forward.  **_“How… f...un…”_ **

“Spirit, transform.” Stein ordered, and the weapon looked to him.

“Wh-What?”

“Transform! Now!” Spirit was shocked to hear the slightest bit of panic in Stein’s voice. Looking back to the monster, he gulped, and transformed.

Stein caught him, and he felt stronger than he ever had before. Unfortunately, Spirit also felt the fear Stein was so desperately trying to hide.

The monster roared, and lunged toward the pair. Stein took a step back and swung, cutting the monsters face and arm, but the attack hardly affected it.

Stein swung again and again, always landing but never deep enough to do much more than anger the monster further. Soon, Stein jumped away, and hid behind a tree.

“What  _ is  _ that thing?!” Spirit asked, frantic.

Stein looked at it over his shoulder. “I don’t know, but it has a kishin egg soul.”

“Is it the same soul you sensed earlier?”

“Definitely. I don’t know how I missed that it was evil, though. We could’ve avoided this entirely.”

“Hindsight is always 20/20.” Spirit sighed. “Look, we have to beat it. Or else it’ll just be chasing us all night, and I’m willing to bet that thing’s got more stamina than us.”

Stein nodded. “I know. We just… we have to get the jump on it, somehow.”

Stein looked around, and then was struck with an idea.

“Spirit, you’re going to hate this.”

“Oh boy. What is it.”

“The roof.”

Spirit looked, and shook his head, his scythe form vibrating. “No, no, no. I’m not letting you fall from something that high again.”

“We’ll land on the monster. We’ll kill it, and it’ll break our fall.”

“How about we just climb a tree?”

“It’s taller than the trees. This is the best option we’ve got.”

Spirit sighed, knowing it was true. “Please don’t die, or hurt yourself. You promised you wouldn’t.”

Stein smiled. “I intend to keep that promise.”

The next second, Stein was running towards the building. As the entered the lobby, there was a roar. The monster had seen them.

“Up we go.” Stein mumbled, running up the stairs with Spirit slung over his shoulder.

They heard the monster slam through the doors, and after a moment of silence, it began running up the stairs. Stein ran faster.

They slammed through the door to the roof, panting, and a moment later the monster came in so fast that it knocked the metal door straight off it’s hinges. It spotted them and roared.

“This isn’t going as planned.” Stein sighed, holding Spirit at the ready.

“Yeah, you think?! We’re trapped!” Spirit yelled from the blade, trying and failing to stay calm.

Stein was backing up, almost to the edge of the roof. “If we slam into it hard enough, we should be able to knock it off the roof.”

“Or we could die.”

“Or that.” Stein tightened his grip on the handle of his weapon. “I’m kind of trying not to think of that.”

“Sorry. Uh. Here, I’ll talk about stuff that doesn’t relate to our death. Um…” Spirit searched his brain and Stein held his stance, staring down the monster, taking deep breaths. 

Distantly, Spirit felt a familiar kind of electricity, but it didn’t hurt him. Rather, it made him feel more powerful.

“Okay. Poetry.” As Spirit began to talk, Stein began to run. “I like Byron and you like Shelley. It’s kinda funny because your name is Franken Stein.”

The monster roared and took large steps towards the partners. The electricity grew stronger, and Spirit continued. “Sushi. We both really liked that sushi place, but I got us kicked out because I was talking too loud. The owner’s pretty rude for kicking us out for something as dumb as  _ that. _ ”

Stein was moving quicker than ever, and with every step the electricity was growing stronger. The monster reached to grab Stein and the scythe with a large, muscular hand. Spirit tried to ignore it and stay calm, continuing to talk. “Classmates. That’s how we got into this mess. Kami and Marie really seem to be our rivals now, huh? Sucks, really, I’d prefer them to be our friends. I’m sure the four of us together would make one hell of a team. That I’d  _ love  _ to see!”

Spirit braced himself as he felt electricity course through him. Stein yelled, and swung Spirit’s blade into the side of the monster, lunging forward to throw them both off the side of the roof.

Once the blade made contact, all the electricity Spirit had felt came rushing out of him and into the monster, which roared in pain.

The monster stumbled, falling backward before toppling over the edge of the roof, pummeling to its doom.

Unfortunately, Stein’s quick movements plus his powerful swing with Spirit led to the partners being launched over the edge of the roof along with the monster they were slaying.

Spirit, at first excited that they were now safe, realized as the monster’s body disappeared in an explosion of black blood-and-guts-like material that the rush he distantly felt was not only that of adrenaline, but also of his own currently-weapon body falling through the air.

Reacting more on instinct than thoughts, Spirit detransformed, rematerializing holding Stein’s hands. The meister looked at him, a mix of panicked, confused, and angry, but didn’t have a chance to say anything before Spirit transformed again, blade to the ground, landing with a hard thud. Stein, who had been holding on to Spirit the whole time, fell over once he landed, his head knocking against the ground, but overall no worse for the wear.

Unlike last time, Spirit thought.

Stein stood, and Spirit detransformed. Silent, Stein pointed behind his partner, who warily turned to see what Stein was pointing too. There, hovering above the ground, was a scaly, red soul. Spirit was surprised he could see it, and more surprised when he could touch it. He sat on the ground, holding it in his hands as Stein came up to sit beside him.

“I’m supposed to eat it now, right?” Spirit looked to his partner, already knowing the answer. “Because… we killed it. Right?”

Stein nodded, looking at the soul. Finally, he let out a breath. “I can’t believe we did it.”

Spirit laughed, leaning back until he was laying on the soft ground. “Me neither, man. This is crazy! Does… does this mean I’m on my way to becoming a Death Scythe?!”

Spirit found himself a mixture of excited and worried. Becoming a Death Scythe was a dangerous task, for the weapon  _ and _ the meister. Some argued that the risk wasn’t worth the reward. After a bit of thought, Spirit decided that, if Stein was with him, it was possible, and he told him such.

Stein was quiet, watching the landscape. Thinking that he didn’t hear, Spirit sat up and was about to repeat his sentiment when Stein began talking.

“I’m glad your the one who ended up being my partner.” He admitted, fidgeting with his sleeve. “I… When we first met, I told you that several other people had already asked to be my partner. Six, to be exact.” He paused then, and Spirit shifted to face Stein completely, to show he was listening.

After a moment, Stein continued. “I was entirely honest with you then. Of those six people… I accepted three of their offers right away.”

“What?” Spirit couldn’t stop himself from exclaiming. “Then- Wha- Why did you make  _ me _ fight for it?”

“I’m getting there!” Stein seemed to pout for a moment before returning to his usual expression. “The first person who approached me I accepted without thought, because I didn’t think I’d ever get a partner. When we tried to resonate, it didn’t work. I couldn’t even hold him. I thought it was his fault, and so our partnership ended before it even began.”

Spirit couldn’t help but draw parallels to their own partnership early on, but chose to keep quiet and let Stein continue.

“The same thing happened with the other two I accepted right away.” He continued, downcast. “After that, I was more careful picking my partners. I started testing people’s strength and skills. One person didn’t think I was worth the trouble. Another I deemed horribly weak. And the third made it as far as you first did, but when we still couldn’t resonate, I kicked them to the curb.” He sighed, looking to Spirit for the first time since his story began. “Through all of them, I never considered it was  _ my  _ fault we couldn’t resonate, that I couldn’t wield them. I always blamed  _ their  _ lack of effort, lack of skill… So I left them all behind. Until you.”

With a small smile, Stein put a hand on Spirit’s shoulder. “I’m glad  _ you’re  _ the one who made it through, the one who got it through my head that this was a partnership. So… I guess I’m saying thank you, Spirit.”

Teary-eyed, though he wouldn’t admit it, Spirit pulled his friend into a hug. “I’m glad it was you, too.”

They stayed like that, hugging in the peaceful moonlight of the graveyard, for a long moment. So long that Spirit began to think Stein had fallen asleep. But eventually, Stein pulled away, and the moment ended, his focus going back to the soul they had collected. 

“Well, I think you should eat it.” Stein stated. “I mean, what else would you do with it?”

Spirit nodded with a nervous gulp. “Will it… taste bad?”

“I don’t know, Spirit, I’ve never eaten a soul before.”

“Yeah, I would hope not.” Spirit squished the soul gently between his hands, almost expecting it to explode. When it didn’t, he took a breath. “Well, here goes nothing.”

The soul seemed larger than his jaw, and he wasn’t exactly expecting it to fit in his mouth. But not only did the soul fit in his mouth, it went smoothly down his throat. For a moment, Spirit felt another rush of adrenaline, but it quickly faded. He looked to Stein with a proud smile.

Stein returned Spirit’s smile with a neutral gaze. “That was super gross.”

The two boys laughed, and soon enough they were passed out against the wall of the morgue. The next morning a teacher found them, and the pair informed him of their adventure.

The news spread quickly around the school, and for a while, the two were almost celebrities. 

Needless to say, when the test to get into the E.A.T. Class came around, the two passed with flying colors.


	2. Strange Changes

Stretching as he woke up, Spirit’s stomach ached. Not the contents, but the skin itself. Lifting his blanket, he looked to see that there was a new scar spanning the length of nearly his entire stomach, the stitching precise and clean. It fit among the other scars he had mysteriously gained over the last two years.

No longer paying this phenomenon any mind, Spirit groaned and got up. If the scar was still bothering him after breakfast, he decided, then he would take some painkillers. 

Spirit’s morning routine had changed significantly from when he first came to the DWMA two years prior. He took a long shower every morning, and took time to make certain his now shoulder-length red hair was shiny and smooth. He’d brush his teeth and put on what he figured was probably too much body spray, then throw on fresh clothes. 

It would be around an hour and a half between the time he woke up and the time he actually left his room.

His flatmate and meister, Stein, was on the opposite end of the getting ready spectrum. 

First of all, Stein didn’t sleep. He stayed awake, fueled by coffee and spite, until he quite literally passed out every now and then. Which meant that he was perpetually tired; a fact that showed clear on his face.

Spirit figured his partner had been born with grey hair, but also decided that if he hadn’t been, he still would’ve gone grey by now. And he was only eleven. 

Spirit all but forced Stein to take a shower every other day, so he didn’t smell awful, but nothing Spirit did could get Stein to brush his hair on the regular. 

The two did manage to fall into an odd sort of balance. Stein would cook, since he was good at doing so, and Spirit would do the laundry, because he didn’t trust Stein to do it. They both cleaned the flat, since neither liked a messy living space, and they took turns buying groceries and such. 

Living with Stein proved to be quite the trip. The two moved in about a year after being accepted into the E.A.T. Class, and one week and a weird accident involving a frying pan and some lotion Spirit somehow got from Kami, the two discovered Stein’s desperate need for glasses.

Once he got them, Stein had looked around silently before focusing on Spirit. The first thing he said was, “Oh, you have heterochromia.”

Spirit was flabbergasted. “You? You’ve known me for almost two years and you only  _ just  _ noticed I have heterochromia?”

“I thought it was just a trick of the light.” Was his excuse.

After that, the two tried to keep a better eye on eachother. Spirit thought they were closer than ever. But then something peculiar began happening.

It was commonplace for Spirit and Stein to casually fight Marie and Kami. At least, for the weapons it was casual. While Marie held a grudge against Stein in particular for over a year, she ended up forgiving him when the two were partnered for a project that ended with them getting into an illegal fight with Joe Buttataki. Marie certainly considered them friends, but Stein still only seemed interested in her because of her talent as a weapon. Spirit felt bad for her in that case.

Kami clearly did not see their battles as anything casual. She still harbored a massive grudge against both of the boys, and was not a fan of Marie and Stein’s new friendship. She took every battle as a serious endeavor.

Stein was an odd case. For a long time, he treated the battles as a joke or, at best, training. But more recently, Stein would be scarily quiet for the entirety of the battle, until the very end, when he would laugh maniacally in the face of whoever he had defeated. The one exception to this was when they would fight Marie and Kami; in which case, Stein would switch between being emotionless and acting like his old self, joking and teasing with his opponents. But only with Kami and Marie.

The worst part was Spirit’s own reactions. At first he was telling Stein off for being a bad winner. But over time, whenever they fought together, whenever they resonated… Spirit could feel a new kind of electricity. One that was more of an incessant humming in the back of his head. And the more that happened, the more Spirit found himself joining in with Stein’s mockery. 

Not only that, the humming became louder and more clear as time went on. It sounded more like a voice, though Spirit couldn’t tell what it was saying. And it made him more powerful, he could tell, and he knew Stein could tell too. In that way, Spirit wasn’t sure if he wanted to get rid of the humming. It didn’t seem to be doing any bad. Just making them stronger, a better team. Yeah.

Much like with Stein’s behavior, there was one exception to the humming, and again, it was with Kami and Marie. Whether in battle or hanging out casually, the humming seemed quieter. And furthermore, what he could hear of the humming didn’t empower him, but hurt him, sometimes giving him terrible headaches, but if he kept near the girls, it would go away. 

All of this struck Spirit as rather odd, but there were a lot of odd things going on at the DWMA. His mysteriously-appearing scars, for example. There were weirder things than humming in the back of one's head and a moody eleven-year-old meister.

Once Spirit had finished his morning routine, he stepped outside of his room and into the kitchen. When he moved to lean against the counter, there was a slight pain in his stomach, and he was reminded of his latest scar. With a huff, he quit leaning and moved to get some painkillers from a cabinet nearby, which led to him finally noticing Stein.

The meister was kneeling on the tiled floor of kitchen, staring intensely at the oven. As usual, he looked tired, and his white coat was falling off his shoulder. His glasses sat on top of his messy hair, the lenses dirty. 

“Good morning.” Spirit greeted with a false cheerfulness, grabbing the painkillers out of the cabinet. “What are you researching today, hm?”

Stein blinked, slowly. “Cake.” He stated. After a moment, he looked to Spirit and put his glasses on properly. “I also made omelettes.”

“Oh, sweet!” Spirit swallowed the painkillers dry, then moved across the kitchen to get some of the breakfast.

As he did so, Stein stood up, fixing his coat. “You’re very dressed up today.”

“Gotta look good for the ladies, Stein.” Spirit grinned. “Besides, not all of us have the aesthetic of a drowned rat.”

Stein shrugged, looking down at the oven. “Maybe so, but the only girls we’ll be seeing today are Marie and her meister. And you’ve made yourself a fool in front of them too many times to ever impress them now.”

“What are you talking about? Marie and Kami may be the only girls you talk too, but they aren’t the only girls in school.”

“Oh, you must have forgotten.” Spirit looked up to see a rather creepy grin on Stein’s face as he watched the oven. “We’re going on a mission today, remember? Us and Marie’s team were assigned to go to California and hunt down a rogue soul.”

Spirit deflated. “Oh, yeah…” He mumbled, his mouth full of omelette.

Stein laughed, and Spirit felt the humming in the back of his head. It took him a moment to notice that he was laughing too.

The boys had breakfast and set out for the airport, where they met up with the girls. Upon seeing Kami and Marie, Spirit felt much better, and the humming immediately ceased. 

They landed in California with no fanfare, and were driven to the sleepy little town of Pacific Grove. It was a pretty town, lots of quaint houses and greenery, and the ocean was right there! 

Marie was excited to be near the water; they were drastically different from the seas of Norway, but it was an ocean nonetheless. Her hair, now cut to her shoulders, bounced with every step, and her smile was wide. She hadn’t grown much in the last two years, but her presence was big, and her enthusiasm of the water caught the attention of several locals.

Kami, on the other hand, was all business. She threatened to keep Marie on one of those child leashed if she didn’t stay focused, and when the boys laughed at the thought, she reminded them that she would leave them behind in a heartbeat. Over the last two years, Kami had gotten taller, but Spirit had caught up quick. Her hair, he had learned, was not naturally black, and she dyed it a variety of colors. Currently, it was white, and it had already been put up in her usual battle-style ponytail. 

The soul they were looking for had been terrorizing the usually-peaceful beach community, eating bodies and souls alike, the remains washing up on the sandy shores. While this was terrifying, Marie was glad for an excuse to stay near the water.

The day grew late and the sky grew dark. Fewer and fewer people would come by, until it was only the two meister-weapon pairs. 

Sitting on a rock, Kami sighed. “Waiting here is doing nothing. We should be hunting it, not waiting for it to come to us.”

“We don’t know where it’s base is, or really anything about it.” Stein explained, sleeves rolled up and hermit crabs in hand. “We don’t have much of a choice except to wait.”

Marie and Spirit were looking through tidepools, terrorizing small creatures with their presence. Now that no one but his friends were around, Spirit cared less about impressing people, and didn’t fuss nearly as much as he would normally when Marie splashed his clothes and hair with the cold water. He had made enough women swoon today, he was certain.

While trying to catch a crab, Spirit heard his partner and Kami arguing from the other side of the beach, and sighed. They would never get along. Looking back at the small pool, he saw large ripples. Ones that couldn’t have been made by him, and Marie was further away at a different pool. He felt a slight humming in is head. 

Spirit heard it before he saw it. A roar, and the crash of a wave. Spirit looked over his shoulder, afraid of what could have possibly made the noise. Towering above him was a monstrous being, with a large, protruding mouth, containing rows of shark teeth. It’s skin was black and rubbery, and it wore divers goggles. Its arms were too long, and its legs, though still distinguishable, seemed to be fused together, and was more reminiscent of a tail. Its hands were humanlike in shape, but the fingers and palms had suction-cups, and moved as if they were boneless.

Spirit didn’t have soul perception, but it was obvious that this was what they had been looking for. He jumped across the rocks of the tide pools to get back to Stein so they could take this thing down and collect its soul.

Marie, on the other hand, had the advantage of being futher away from the monster. She had since learned to partially transform, and landed a mighty blow to the monsters’ face. It roared, and knocked her into the shallow waters of the shore. Sputtering, Marie surfaced, ready to continue to fight one-on-one until Spirit called to her. 

The two joined their meisters at the shore and transformed, ready to battle. But Spirit still felt the humming in his head. It was louder than usual, and didn’t seem to be making him stronger like it had before; dare he say it, the noise was hurting him.

The monster dragged its body over the rocks of the tidepools, the end of its tail-like legs still hanging in the water. 

**_“I am the Bay Eater. The tides are my allies. You are my next meal.”_ ** It said, and then made a noise like someone trying to laugh while gargling saltwater.

“Sorry not sorry,” Marie called out from her weapon form, “But I’m pretty sure  _ you’re  _ gonna be  _ my  _ next meal.”

“Not if we get it first!” Spirit teased, and was then somewhat surprised when Stein didn’t react at all.

“No more jokes, it’s time to focus.” Kami reminded them, her voice stern. Her next move was to dash forward and attack the monster.

“C’mon, Stein, let’s get that soul!” Spirit called to his partner, trying to seem pumped up even though it felt like the humming was draining his energy.

Stein was quiet for a moment, then shook his head and took a breath. “Y-Yeah.” He swallowed, hands tightening around the shaft of the scythe. “Yeah, let’s go.”

Before Spirit could ask if his partner was okay, they were moving. Stein caught up to Kami remarkably quick, and swung Spirit’s blade at the monsters’ face. He missed, and swung more, at its body and arms. All missed.

“Stein!” Spirit called from within his weapon form, frustrated. “Stop swinging blindly! We won’t get anywhere like this!”

When Stein didn’t seem to be listening, Spirit sighed, closing his eyes and running a hand through his hair. “What’s gotten into you..?”

As if to answer his question, Spirit suddenly felt as if he was drowning. Opening his eyes didn’t help; there was only black. He struggled, trying to call out for help, feeling weak and close to death…

When Spirit next opened his eyes, he was sitting in a chair, in a well-lit room. He didn’t know how he got here; him and Stein and the girls were just fighting that monster at the beach.

Spirit looked around for an exit. He had to get back to the fight. Upon standing up, Spirit noticed just how well-dressed he had become. The suit he was wearing looked more expensive than anything he’d ever owned. 

The room was small, and red. The tiled floor was checkered red and black. There was a record player, but no record on it. Yet it spun, the needle dragging across the rubber and making a static noise. Spirit moved the needle off the rubber, but the static continued.

Other than that, the room was empty. There was a large door, painted black with a golden handle. When Spirit tried it, it opened to a black void. Not wanting to risk it, Spirit shut the door and looked for another way out.

After what felt like forever with no luck, Spirit sighed and sat back in the chair he had woken up in, looking up at the ceiling and searching his mind for a solution.

It didn’t take long before he felt something wet on his ankle.

Sitting up, Spirit almost screamed when he saw that the entire floor was covered with a black sludge. It seemed to be dripping down the walls at an incredible rate, flooding the room. It was creeping up his pants now.

Panicking, Spirit trudged through the sludge towards the door, suddenly thinking it was worth the risk. But whatever the black stuff was, it was thick and hard to move through. By the time Spirit got to the door, it was at his waist, and rapidly climbing higher.

Desperately, Spirit tried to open the door, but it seemed to suddenly be locked. He slammed his body against it, transformed his arm and stabbed it, and tried to break the handle off. Nothing worked.

As the sludge reached his neck, Spirit banged on the door, crying out for help. He tried to swim up and stay above the sludge, but it was too thick. He was stuck. As it reached his mouth and nose, he held his breath and hoped for the best.

Again, Spirit felt like he was drowning, but this time felt different. It didn’t feel thick, like the sludge in the room, and he could move around. Upon opening his eyes, they burned, but he forced them to stay open, and instead of pure darkness, he saw distant lights, and pale sands. He found his footing and stood, rising above the water with a violent cough.

He was at the beach, in the swallows. 

Safe.

Whipping around, he saw the monster they were hunting up on the rocky slope, gobbling up squirrels and seagulls.

“Did it… eat…?” Spirit didn’t want to finish that thought. Surely, if it had killed his friends, it would have killed him too. Right?

Spirit tried not to dwell on it. The more he thought about anything from his near-death dream or the death of his friends, the louder the humming in his head became.

As Spirit was trying to get out of the cold water as quietly as he could, he heard a whistle. Afraid, he looked up to the monster, but it was still busy with its birds. The whistle came again, this time accompanied with a hushed, “Over here, dumbass!”

Spirit whipped around in the other direction, his hair whacking him in the face. Waving at him from behind a rock was a head of familiar, bright blonde hair.

“Marie…” Spirit let out a sigh of relief, and for a moment thought he might pass out. She gestured for him to come over to her, and Spirit quietly swam over and climbed up the rocks. Behind the corner was not only Marie, but Kami as well.

The second he was stable on the rocks, Marie gave Spirit a bone-crushing hug. He had to pry her off after a while because he couldn’t breathe, and didn’t want to be reminded any further of his weird drowning dream.

“Holy  _ shit,  _ Spirit, we thought you died!” Marie whisper-shouted. “When Stein dropped you, we were like, what the fuck is he doing? We have to beat this guy! And then he came for  _ us _ —”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Spirit held out a hand to stop her rambling. “Where’s Stein?”

Marie made a face, and Kami sighed. Spirit grew angry.

“You didn’t  _ leave him _ with the f-f-f _ ucking  _ monster, right?!”

“Of course we didn’t.” Kami glared, but he could tell it was half-hearted. “He’s… not doing well.”

“He got hurt?”

“Not exactly.”

Marie grabbed Spirit’s hand and led him further around the corner to a small, concrete platform, and Kami followed them. Lying on the platform, looking almost as if he was just sleeping soundly, was Stein. The only sign of trouble was the sweat on his brow, the tear in his jacket, and shattered lense of his glasses.

Spirit felt for his meister’s pulse, and found it was regular. “What happened to him?”

“He was swinging blind, and then he smacked into the water.” Kami explained with a hushed tone, eyes not leaving Stein’s body. “Me and Marie kept fighting, expecting him to just get back up. And he did… but he didn’t have you. He came rushing at the three of us with his soul wavelength at the ready, and landed some pretty good hits.” Then, Kami’s face turned dark. “But when we got close to him to ask about you, he tried to attack us as well. We fought until the monster swept the three of us up in a wave. It must’ve gotten distracted or confused, because it didn’t chase after us. We came around the corner here, and Marie decided to look around for you while I…  _ talked  _ to Stein.”

Kami finally looked away from Stein’s body with a sigh. “Something was wrong with him. He was talking nonsense, not answering me… he said something about black goop and then just started laughing and laughing… and then he passed out.”

Spirit gulped. “While I was in the water… I had a weird dream. I was in a room, in a nice suit, with a record player… and the room flooded with black sludge. And then I woke up.”

Marie looked between her friends, concern clear on her face. “That’s gotta mean something. Right? I’m sure it does.”

“We can ask when we get home.” Kami stated, standing up straight. “We’ve been waiting around long enough. Spirit, you stay here with Stein. Me and Marie will go finish that thing off, and then we can get Stein home.”

“What? No, no.” Spirit shook his head. “Forget the damn soul, we have to help him  _ now.  _ He could get worse at any second!”

“Spirit, we cannot let this soul continue to take lives.”

“We can’t leave Stein like this!”

“We aren’t leaving him, you’ll be here.”

“I can’t do anything for him! We have to go to a hospital, or to the academy, and we have to go now!”

“It is our  _ duty  _ as meisters and weapons to deal with this! It’s what we were sent here for!”

As Kami and Spirit argued quietly, Marie rolled her eyes and sat near Stein. She looked him over again for any open wounds, but once again only found tears in his jacket. She wonders if he knows how to sow, or if he’ll need help, or if he’d just toss it and get a new one.

Marie felt like, since their first meeting, her and Spirit had become pretty good partners. But she wanted to be closer with Stein as well. Not a whole lot of people were willing to put up with her brash personality, especially not boys.

If she was being honest with herself, Marie didn’t like to dwell on thoughts of boys. Ever since she was little, they would run away from her, and those that didn’t were either dared, mean, or eventually scared off by Marie’s enthusiasm. But not Spirit. And… not Stein.

She and Stein didn’t talk as much as she would’ve liked, but she knew he was interested in her. Maybe not in the way that she wanted boys to be interested in her, but still. He said she was talented, ahead of the curve, and incredibly strong. She knew he only meant in the sense of her being a weapon, but she took the complements to heart nonetheless.

She told Kami about it, once. Her meister didn’t approve, and recommended she get over him. She would remind Marie that he would all but stalk her in their early years at the academy, and that he showed no mercy when he beat them in an illegal fight. Marie agreed, but that night she remembered that Stein only used his most powerful attack, his soul wavelength, on Kami and not on her. That sure sounded like mercy.

Marie sure hoped he would be okay. She wanted them to be actual friends. Maybe more, someday.

“Marie.” Came Kami’s voice, and Marie snapped out of her thoughts, remembering the situation they were currently in.

“Oh, did you stop arguing? Sorry, I was tuning you guys out.” Marie smirked, looking up at her meister and Spirit.

The two were looking at Marie like she had two heads.

“What?” Marie frowned. “Do I have something on my face? Because Spirit looks like a drowned rat, so—”

“Marie.” Kami repeated. “You’re glowing.”

“Oh, thank you!”

“No,” the meister shook her head, “literally. Look at your hands, you are  _ actually  _ glowing.”

Marie did as her meister instructed, and gasped when she saw Kami was right. Her hands, legs, skirt, socks, shoes… her entire body was glowing with a soft, yellow-orange light.

Spirit suddenly gasped and joined Marie at Stein’s side, focusing on the young meister. “He’s… is he waking up?”

Marie turned and looked at Stein, putting a hand on one of his. After a moment, he opened his eyes.

“Spirit…? Marie..?” His eyes darted between the two of them. “Wh… Who got the soul?”

Spirit laughed, but it sounded more like a cough. “W-We haven’t beaten it yet, Franken. You and I… Pretty sure we almost drowned.”

“In the black.” Stein said, his voice serious. He then looked to Marie. “How did you get rid of it?”

“I- Me?” Marie asked, and then didn’t give anyone enough time to answer. “I haven’t done anything. I just kinda started glowing for… some reason.”

Stein closed his eyes and smiled slightly. “You were glowing, yes… I was drowning, and you sat in the chair and smiled at me and destroyed all the black just by being there… how did you do that? How did you get there?”

Spirit, Marie, and Kami looked between eachother. After a moment of silence, Kami stepped back and took a hard look at the three people in front of her.

After a moment, she spoke up. “Marie… you and Stein are in resonance. You’re, actually, you’re almost in resonance with Spirit, too. How are you doing that?”

“I don’t know!” The weapon whisper-shouted. “Why does everyone keep asking me that!”

“Okay, okay, hear me out.” Spirit spoke up. “Maybe… Marie is healing Stein?”

“Is that even possible?” Marie asked, starting to be concerned for herself.

“I don’t know, but it might be.” Spirit shrugged, and then gestured to Stein. “Look, right after you started glowing, Stein woke up, and you guys fell into resonance. When I came over here, I immediately felt better, and now we’re almost in resonance. Marie… I think you’re helping us.”

“So now what?” Kami interrupted. “Okay, great if she’s magically healing you two idiots, but where do we go from here? Stein clearly still isn’t well enough to fight, and now that Marie is a walking flashlight, we’ll never get a jump on the monster. So what’s the plan?”

For a moment, all was quiet. Then Marie spoke up.

“Use Spirit.” She said.

“What?” Kami and the weapon in question asked in sync.

“Use Spirit!” Marie repeated. “Me and Stein will stay back here, and you two can go beat the evil soul, and then we get the fuck out of here!”

Spirit and Kami looked at eachother, and Spirit shrugged. “I’m willing to try if you are.”

Kami let out a long sigh. “Transform. If I can hold you, then I’ll do it.”

With one last look at Stein, Spirit did as he was told. Once he was fully transformed, Kami caught him, and much to everyone’s surprise, she held on. No burning, no heaviness, nothing. 

Kami put on her serious face and looked to Marie, slinging Spirit’s scythe form over her shoulder. “If I’m not back in half an hour, take Stein and get out of here.”

“Stay safe.” Was Marie’s response. Stein snored.

Kami and Spirit climbed up the rocks and going around the corner. Once they hit the sandy shore, Kami broke into a sprint, pulling Spirit in front of her, mimicking what she had seen Stein do countless times.

The monster, which had finally left the birds alone and was laying across the tidepools, shot up when it saw them coming. With a roar, it came charging.

Kami would admit she was afraid. Fear was a natural reaction, and it was what kept one human. Fear is a driving force. It drives some to become kishin. It drives others to become meisters.

The monster tried to slam it’s hand onto the pair and crush them, but Kami dodged and it only hit sand. Seeing her chance, Kami gave a powerful swing to the monsters arm, and sliced it clean off.

It didn’t bleed, most kishin don’t, but it did roar. As it reared up, holding it’s now severed arm, Kami dashed forward, slicing it’s stomach as she went.

“Hey, Kami!” Spirit’s face appeared on his blade, trying to get Kami’s attention. “I have an idea!”

“Make it quick.” Kami grumbled, running faster as the monster chased after her.

“Climb up that like, rock mountain. If you can get above it, you jump on it from above and slam it’s skull!”

“That’s super morbid, but it’ll probably work.” 

“Yeah, it will! It used to be mine and Stein’s signature move.” Spirit boasted, and Kami rolled her eyes. 

Taking Spirit’s advice, Kami jumped up across the tide pools and up the rocky mountainside before finally getting to the grassy clearing on the top.

The monster, truly a tank being strong but slow, was making its way up the mountainside. With a running start and a fierce yell, Kami jumped over the ledge and slammed Spirit’s blade into the skull of the monster, using her weight and gravity to drag them down, across the monster’s face.

Kicking off of it’s face, Kami’s back hit the mountainside and she lost her breath, but stayed standing.

The monster, meanwhile, screamed and cried, and soon fell silent, turning reddish-black and disappearing completely. Hovering in the air was it’s soul, and it floated gently down to the sand.

Spirit detransformed and helped keep Kami stable. They walked down the mountainside to the soul, where Spirit picked it up. He offered it to Kami, and she shook her head.

“I can’t eat souls, stupid.” She mumbled.

“No, I meant… for Marie.” Spirit clarified.

Kami shook her head again. “You’re the one who killed it, you eat it.”

“But you’re  _ Marie’s  _ meister, shouldn’t she have it?”

“Eat the soul, Spirit.” Kami sighed, looking up at the sky. “Let’s get home.”


	3. An End

Two years and a half years later, Kami is dragging her boyfriend of just under a year, Spirit, to the Death Room. She pounded on the door, despite Spirit’s protests, until someone finally opened it. She shoved past the teacher and dragged Spirit down the hall, landing them at the feet of Lord Death.

He was clearly surprised to see them, but before he could say a word, Kami looked him in the eye and spoke first.

“Spirit cannot be partners with that bastard Stein anymore.”

Lord Death quirked his head. “Oh? And why is that?”

Kami looked to Spirit. “Show him.”

Spirit hesitantly took off his shirt. His chest, arms, back, and even some of his neck were covered in scars, all of them surgical and precise. Kami looked him over, nodded once, and turned back to Lord Death.

“Sir, all of these scars are from Stein experimenting on Spirit.” She explained. “I have reason to believe that this has been going on since the beginning of their partnership.”

“Oh. Well. Hm.” Lord Death stuttered, followed by a long silence. “Spirit. Can I ask your opinion of this?”

Spirit looked up at Lord Death, twisting his shirt between his hands. “Uh. Well. I-I do think he’s the cause of these, yeah.” He confessed with a sigh. “I started thinking it might be him a couple years ago, when we first found out about his susceptibility to madness, during the Monterey mission.”

“Why didn’t you do anything then?”

Spirit stayed quiet, eyes to the ground. “Because… I trusted him.” He stated. “Back when we first became partners, we promised eachother we would never let the other come to any harm, not even from eachother. I trusted he would uphold that promise.”

“Mhm.” Lord Death nodded, and then sighed. “Alright, well… I think we should bring Stein in to talk about this.”

Kami flexed her fists.

Elsewhere in the academy, Stein was reading a book of poetry; Shelley, specifically. Sitting beside him in one of the infirmary beds was Marie, reading a romance novel. It had taken her a full week to come out from under the covers of the bed, and she still wouldn't let anyone, especially not Stein, see under the bandages.

Little did she know, it was all he had been focused on since she had gotten back.

Just over two weeks prior, Kami and Marie had gone out on a mission in Canada. They were expected to be gone for three days. A week later, there was a desperate S.O.S. call to the Death Room. Kami and Marie defeated the soul, but were trapped in an avalanche. While trying to get out, they came across another evil soul, and this one they couldn’t defeat, because Kami couldn’t lift Marie. Out of options, Marie fought on her own and ended up horribly wounded. The girls hid out in a cave for almost a full day before making their way back to a town, where they found a mirror and called for help.

Spirit and Stein were horrified, and scared for their friends. While Spirit was pleased his girlfriend hadn’t been too badly hurt, Stein resented her for not being a better meister, and letting Marie get wounded.

Ever since they got back, Marie had been in the infirmary, large bandages covering the left side of her face, and what she decided were ugly stitches across her eye. It had been completely destroyed.

While Spirit and Kami would come and visit at least once a day, Stein almost never left Marie’s side. She had always been an anomaly, both as a weapon and as a friend. For starters, she was a friend. Stein only had so many of those.

When Spirit and Kami weren’t visiting, Marie told Stein her true feelings.

“We haven’t been able to resonate very well lately.” She grumbled. “Really, ever since her and Spirit started dating. And she doesn’t even care.”

“Her and Spirit are in resonance.” Stein told her, once. “They have been since Bay Eater.”

Marie scoffed. “Of course they have.”

“We were in resonance then, too.”

“That was because of my healing wavelength.” Marie sighed. “I want to keep being her partner, and her friend. But we’re just slipping further and further apart…”

Stein watched her for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

She shook her head. “It’s not a big deal. I shouldn’t be telling you this, anyway.”

“You can talk to me about… things. That’s what friends do. Me and Spirit do that all the time.”

“You and Spirit are good partners.”

“Are you and I not good friends?”

There was a long silence after that. Stein tried not to feel bad about not getting an answer and changed the subject to Marie’s latest date, and her young friend, Azusa Yumi who, like Stein himself, had come to the academy remarkably young.

Today was different, and there was no talk. Just unsaid thoughts and the flipping of pages. There was so much to talk about, to be said by both of them. Before there was even a chance, there was an announcement.

“Franken Stein, to the Death Room. I repeat, Franken Stein, to the Death Room.”

Marie looked up from her book at the meister in question. “Another illegal fight?”

“Hm. Not that I can recall.” He closed his book. “If it were, Spirit would’ve been called as well.”

“Well. Try not to get in too much trouble.” Marie teased. After a beat, she added, “I’d miss you, if you were gone all the time.”

Stein looked at her for a moment, and then looked down at his book. “...I’m pleased to know.” He finally said. With that, he stood, and waved Marie goodbye.

Needless to say, Stein wasn’t expecting Spirit and Kami to be in the Death Room waiting for him. Once he saw the looks on their faces, Kami’s of rage and Spirit’s a mix of fear and betrayal, he knew exactly why he had been called.

“Stein.” Lord Death began, and Stein remembered the first time he came to the Death Room. No coffee and graveyard punishments this time. “Kamila and Spirit have come to me saying you have been experimenting on Spirit without his, or anyone’s, consent or knowledge. What do you have to say about these accusations?”

Stein didn’t flinch or hesitate in any way. “Yes, they’re true.”

“I  _ knew  _ it!” Kami shouted, stomping her foot. “You sadistic piece of shit!”

Spirit, on the other hand, didn’t say anything. Stein didn’t expected him too.

“Miss Queen.” Lord Death’s voice threatened. “Please settle down.”

“Lord Death, I will not let this continue!” She continued to shout, ignoring his warning. “And neither should you! I suggest Stein and Spirit’s partnership be terminated!”

That  _ did  _ get Stein’s attention. He didn’t want to lose his number one test subject, and furthermore, he didn’t want to lose his best friend. 

They talked about things, as friends do. Mostly it was Spirit talking and Stein giving sarcastic answers and bad advice. But sometimes the talks were serious. Sometimes Stein was the one who talked. He’d like to talk about Marie.

“Hm. Well. Stein and Spirit are the ones who will have to decide that.” Lord Death nodded thoughtfully. “And it will reset your progress on collecting souls, at which point I remind you that you are very close to becoming a Death Scythe, Spirit.”

Stein shifted his attention to his partner. Spirit was fidgeting with his sleeve, a nervous tick he had picked up over the years from Stein. Spirit, after a moment, looked up to Lord Death.

“Wh… Who would be my partner if not Stein?”

Internally, Stein was begging to know what Spirit was thinking. Externally, he remained stone-faced. Deep down, he knew Lord Death’s answer wouldn’t matter. He knew how this would end.

However, Lord Death was not the one to answer. “I’ll be his partner.” 

It was Kami, and again Stein’s gaze shifted, but this time his expression did as well. Clearing his throat, Stein all but forced Kami to pay attention to him. “What about Marie?” He asked, with a tone to the dangerous.

Kami clenched her jaw, keeping direct eye contact with Stein. “She’s popular. She can find another partner.”

Lord Death cleared his throat, prompting the meisters to look back to him and end their staring contest. “Kamila, if you end your partnership with Marie, she too will have her progress reset.”

“She’s skilled. She’ll be fine.” Kami insisted. “And I can get Spirit back up to where he was with Stein in no time.” 

Silent, Lord Death looked to Spirit, as did the meisters. He looked at his meister, and Stein could see the fear and betrayal clear in his eyes. Stein simply blinked. Spirit’s gaze shifted to Kami, and immediately softened. Finally, he looked to Lord Death, looking more confident, if not angry.

“I’m fine with resetting.” He said.

“I’ll partner with Kami.” He said.

“I need to get away from Stein, sir.” He said, and his words felt like ice stabbing at the heart Stein liked to pretend didn’t exist.

Lord Death nodded, solemn. “Then so it shall be.” He spoke, his voice sad. “Someone will have to inform Miss Mjolnir, of course. And Stein…” He looked directly at him, and Stein could feel the Lord looking at his soul. “...this will not be your only punishment.”

Stein nodded, once, keeping his gaze directly on Lord Death, blocking Spirit and Kami out of his peripheral vision. “I understand, sir.”

That punishment ended up being a suspension. The only reason he didn’t get expelled was because of Lord Death’s support. He claimed that Stein was the best meister the school had ever seen, despite his faults. He was too valuable, too talented, too dangerous to be left to his own devices.

After a month, he was allowed to return to the school. He hadn’t gotten the chance before he left to talk to Marie. He wished he could’ve been there with her once she found out that her and Kami wouldn’t be partners anymore. He was certain it was difficult; Marie wanted to make things work with Kami, not end them.

Once he returned, Stein found just about what he expected; a school-wide cold shoulder. He knew people were whispering behind his back. He was certain Kami had been running the rumor mill about him. Then again, she didn’t exactly have to lie to make people hate him. He had done some bad shit; he knew and would admit that.

When he came into class, the chatter fell silent. Kami was sitting where he used too, beside Spirit. She glared at him, burning holes into his head. Spirit nervously looked away and all but hid behind Kami, but once he thought Stein wasn’t paying attention anymore, he joined his girlfriend in her glaring.

Stein didn’t want to be here. He took a random seat and zoned out for all of class.

After class was over he left, of course. At the doorway, someone grabbed his sleeve and stopped him. Looking immediately over his shoulder, he saw only a wall. Moving his gaze down, he was faced with a familiar head of blonde hair.

“Marie?” He asked, softer and more surprised than he wanted to sound. “Good to see you.”

Marie did not look happy to see him. Furthermore, she seemed very different. A long skirt and a long-sleeved shirt, the top three buttons undone. But most notably, the bandages were gone. In their place was a sleek, black eyepatch.

Marie stared up at Stein for a long moment, and then finally looked away and sighed. “Why. That’s really all I can ask, isn’t it?” She almost laughed. “But I doubt I’ll get an answer. I couldn’t get one out of Kami or Spirit, and I definitely won’t get one out of you.”

“You might be able too.” Stein countered. “But I don’t know the question.”

“I have several.” She grumbled. “Why did you cut open Spirit. Why did Kami abandon me for her stupid boyfriend. Why won’t anyone partner with me now. How long have you been lying to me about friendship. The list goes on.”

Stein stood up straighter. “I never lied to you, Marie.”

“You sure didn’t tell the truth.”

He fell quiet. “Maybe.” He said. A moment later, something else she said struck him. “What do you mean, no one will partner with you?”

Marie crossed her arms. “I mean no one will partner with me. Few are willing and those who are can’t resonate with me, no matter how hard we try.”

“We can resonate.” Stein couldn’t stop himself from saying.

Marie looked at him, face flushed. “Wh-What? Are you crazy?! The answer is yes, you are crazy, you literally experimented on your last partner, why would I trust you with me? What?!”

Stein shrugged, looking elsewhere. “I was just stating a fact. But now that I think about it, it would work out well, wouldn’t it? You need a meister, I need a weapon. Your soul is stubborn, and I’ve trained mine to be very flexible. You’re pretty, popular, Miss Marie, and I’m the local mad scientist.” Stein adjusted his glasses. “I actually find this very funny.”

Marie stopped herself from pouting. “You’re on the verge of quoting Batman.”

“We’re Beauty and the Beast—”

“Stop!” She smacked his arm, and had to force herself to stop smiling and not laugh. Had to remind herself that it  _ wasn’t  _ good to have him back, that he was dangerous, that she shouldn’t feel this way.

Marie sighed. “I’m… I don’t know if you’re actually offering, Stein, but I’m denying. I’ll find someone. And if I don’t, I’ll be self-wielding! It’ll be a breeze!”

Stein smiled lazily. “I wish you good luck, then.”

They parted ways, but soon ran into eachother again, and Stein walked Marie to her class so she’d stop getting lost. He skipped the rest of his classes that day to read in the library.

Three days later, he had disappeared without a trace.

Marie tried not to be worried. They weren’t partners, they weren’t dating, they weren’t even friends anymore. She had healed his mind once, but apparently it didn’t matter; he still hurt Spirit. And in doing so he hurt Kami and herself as well. She didn’t  _ want  _ to be worried.

Unfortunately, she was. But to her surprise, she wasn’t the only one.

Most of the school thought Stein had been expelled, or had simply realized he wasn’t wanted and ran off. Kami was overjoyed at the prospect. Spirit, however, was not nearly as happy as Marie expected him to be.

His former partner and primary victim in this whole debacle was just as concerned as Marie about where Stein had gone, she could tell. But he refused to tell her about it, and when Kami was around she wouldn’t let anyone even say the name “Stein.” 

So, about five days into Stein’s disappearance, Marie confided in Azusa Yumi, a young weapon she had struck up an odd friendship with. 

“Well one, you clearly have a crush on him.” She stated once Marie had finished rambling, not even looking up from her book. “And two, he seems to consider you a close friend at least, probably his only one now. So, if he has run off forever, I’d imagine he’d at least write you a letter or something. Now chill out and let me study.”

Marie sighed. “All my friends are nerds. Nobody wants to go shopping with me, or talk about boys, it’s just books, books, books-”

“Why are you suddenly so interested in that stuff?” Azusa grumbles. “You lose an eye and gain a fashion sense?”

Marie stiffens and puts a hand over her eyepatch. “I’ve always had a fashion sense.”

“Also, why are you so obsessed with getting a boyfriend if you have a crush on Stein?”

“Because I don’t!”

“...Keep telling yourself that.”

“Ugh!” Marie groaned. “I’m not talking about this anymore, thanks for the advice Azusa, bye!”

Azusa quietly laughed as Marie rushed away, keeping a mental timer for long it took for her to come back and ask for directions back to her dorm. It took five minutes; a new record.

Marie hated living in a dorm. She missed her nice apartment that she had shared with Kami. But now Kami and Spirit were living together, because of course they were. They were partners, in so many meanings of the word. Marie missed that.

She wanted a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend! She honestly didn’t care! While she was admittedly a bit attached to Stein, a feeling she was still fighting, she knew the feeling wasn’t mutual. All she wanted was that feeling of partnership like Kami and Spirit had. But after she lost her eye, she knew no one would want to date her. Furthermore, she had scared off so many potential dates with her excitable tendencies, quick temper, and lightning punches. So clearly the solution was to change. Look prettier so they don’t pay attention to her eye. Be sweet so they don’t think she’s dangerous. Just find a partnership. Just find where you belong.

Azusa took Marie to her room and then went back to her own. Marie had no roommates, since the academy didn’t want to put her with a bunch of freshmen. At first she thought she was lucky, but now it just felt lonely.

She shut and locked the door behind her, changed into pajamas, threw her eyepatch at a wall, dragged her comforter under her bed, and tried not to cry. There was no reason to cry, she kept telling herself. She had no reason to feel bad.

After a while, Marie fell asleep, but she only noticed once she was woken up by someone knocking on her door. Actually, it sounded too echoey to be her door. So then what could it be…?

Marie heard a sliding noise and then her mattress sagged down slightly with something’s weight. Definitely afraid, Marie watched a pair of boots step onto the floor. They walked towards the wall, and she snuck out from under the bed. Sneakily, as the figure reached for the lights, Marie punched them in the back, her added electricity sending them slamming into the wall.

Ironically, the figure hitting the wall also hit the lightswitch, and Marie finally saw that the intruder was none other than Stein, looking overall no worse for the wear, except for his horribly messy hair and clothes, and some odd bruises on his face.

The two looked at eachother in silence for a moment, and then Stein cracked a grin. “So I did get the right room, good.”

“Wh-Why are you here! Why did you leave?! Where did you go?! What the hell happened to you?” Marie questions came flying out of her mouth, and Stein gestured for her to quiet down a little.

“It’s 2AM, Marie, people are sleeping.” He reminded her. 

Suppressing a groan, Marie flopped onto her bed, and Stein sat beside her.

“Why my room.” She stated more than asked. “Why not go back to your room.”

“I wanted to ask you something, and I couldn’t wait until morning.”

She sat up and wrapped her arms around her legs. “What is it that’s so important then.”

Stein watched her carefully for a moment. She knew that look all too well; he was reading her soul. She figured it must be either very important or very personal, if he was scanning for her reaction before even asking.

After a moment he looked back at her, actual her. “I want you to be my partner.”

A day ago Marie would’ve flipped out, maybe punch him again. She almost did when he implied it before he disappeared. That night, however, Marie was only slightly surprised, though her heart still raced. She wanted a partnership, in more ways than one. She wanted one  _ with him _ . But there were so many doubts.

“How do I know you won’t just use me as another test subject?” She asked.

Stein fiddled with his sleeve, but didn’t look away. “I got all I wanted out of Spirit, science-wise.” Marie found it odd that he had to clarify, but then he continued. “And… Kami hurt you enough. I don’t think I could ever hurt you, even if I wanted too.”

Marie was surprised to see his face was slightly flushed, and she felt herself blushing at his answer as well. She looked out the window, quiet.

“I want to trust you.” She said.

“If I find a single scar, I’m ditching you.” She said.

“I miss being your friend.” She said, and Stein tried to ignore the sudden racing in his supposedly non-existent heart.

But he couldn’t stop himself from smiling, and when she smiled back, he didnt mind losing the facade for a while.

Stein stayed all night, the two of them falling asleep just as the sun was rising. They had talked about Spirit and Kami, and about eachother, and about the school. When Marie had finally remembered she had taken off her eyepatch, Stein talked her out of putting it back on, and they talked about that mission, and surgery, and how scars actually are very attractive, Marie, and you shouldn’t change to appeal to people who don’t care.

The most interesting conversation started with a simple question from Marie.

“Why couldn’t you wait until morning to ask me to be your partner?”

Stein, currently laying with his head hanging off the bed and one foot out the window, hummed before answering properly. “It just felt too important to wait. I guess sudden realizations are like that.”

“This was a sudden realization?” Marie was admittedly surprised at that. “What, did you realize how great a weapon I was while you dropped off the planet for a week?”

“It was five days, and actually, yes.”

“Oh.” She paused. “What made you realize?”

Stein made a face, at which Marie laughed. “I don’t want to talk about it.” He decided.

Marie laid across his stomach, trying to force all of her weight on him. “Come on! Tell me! I bet it’s sappy and that’s why you won’t tell me, huh, Mr. Tough Guy? Tell me!”

After some more pestering from Marie, he finally gave in and moved to a more comfortable position sitting against the headboard, and Marie sat beside him. His legs took up the entire length of the bed, and that was her excuse.

“While I was in the library last week, I stumbled upon a book.” He began.

“Yeah, the library has a lot of those.” Marie chided, and Stein lightly elbowed her. She laughed, and gestured for him to continue.

“The book was a history of a weapon, the Holy Sword Excalibur. According to the book, only the chosen hero can pull it from the stone and wield it. They are granted wings of light, and the blade can cut through space itself. The wielder becomes a mighty hero, surrounded by victory and glory.”

“Sounds pretty amazing.”

“I thought so, too. And the book had a map of how to get to the cave that the Holy Sword is apparently in. So,”

Marie interrupted him, finishing the thought. “So you decided to go after it.”

“Yes. I figured no one at the school would partner with me, so why not hunt down the best weapon there is?”

“And  _ that’s  _ where you’ve been the past week?!”

“Five days.”

“You went on a wild goose chase and then realized, ‘Hey, Marie’s pretty great,’ and came home?!”

Stein glanced at her. “It wasn’t a wild goose chase. Won’t you let me finish the story?”

“What else is there to it?”

“Well, I left and found the cave. And deep inside was a golden sword, stuck in the ground, in perfect condition.”

“Excalibur.”

“Exactly. I went to pull it out, and-”

“And you couldn’t?”

“Actually, I could.”

Marie expected to see a shit-eating grin on Stein’s face, but instead she found more of a grimace.

“The Holy Sword Excalibur was so…” He paused, looking for the right word. “Lame.”

Marie tried and failed to control her laughter, and Stein found himself laughing with her.

“I wish I had brought a camera. It was a little white… penguin-thing. With a top hat and a cane.” He rubbed one of the bruises on his face. “Which he hit me with, quite a bit.”

“Must be quite the heavy hitter.”

“Nowhere as strong as you.” He grinned, and then it quickly dropped back to his deadpan neutral expression. “I do find it interesting, though. Excalibur seemed to be on the same level as me, likely higher. We were in resonance the moment I stepped into the cave until the second I left. I imagine he has a very flexible soul…”

Marie watched him, unimpressed, as he fell silent. “Please don’t disappear for another week to test this theory.”

“Five days.” He reminded. “And it wouldn’t do much if  _ I  _ went. Maybe someone else…”

“I am not going to find that weird little penguin.”

“His appearance wasn’t the worst part, it was his personality.” Stein groaned. “He was demanding, interrupted me every time I tried to speak, his stories made no sense… he was so incredibly annoying.” After a beat of silence, Stein laughed, and added on, “Kami’s been dethroned.”

The two were in shambles over a one-liner that wasn’t even that funny. They kept talking shit about their classmates through their laughter until they finally calmed down, and then there was silence.

Marie couldn’t help but break it after a few minutes. “So Excalibur was so annoying, you left.”

“Yes.”

“And then on your way back, you were thinking of who you could possibly partner with.”

“Among other things.”

“And you decided me?”

“Yes. Though if I’m being honest, Marie.” He looked over at her. “I’ve wanted you as a partner for a long time. That being said, I’m glad I partnered with Spirit first. He taught me things I don’t know if anyone else would’ve. And I ended up losing him, but not you. Not a complete win, but far from failure.”

Marie stayed quiet, smiling to herself. This was a start. There was trust. There was friendship. There was obviously something more, or at least the hope of it. 

Marie and Stein, Beauty and the Beast, apparently polar opposites, had something in common that night.

For the first time in quite a while, they felt like they were right where they belonged.

As time went on, their dynamic hardly changed. 

Marie helped keep him sane, and stop him from pursuing ridiculous experiments. (She hadn’t been able to stop the Excalibur experiment, however, seeing as how he convinced a kid named Sid Barrett to go after the Holy Sword only two days into their partnership. At least he was proven correct.)

Feelings only grew stronger, but stayed just as hidden. The two got into more fights than ever, mostly out of Marie wanting to defend Stein.

The occasional fights with Spirit and Kami came back, but they were far from playful. Kami and Marie were filled with rage, far from the best friends they were as kids. Spirit was afraid, and sorrowful. He put in his all, but he would never come within ten feet of Stein without Kami by his side. 

Speaking of Stein, he only felt empty. He would hardly say a word when they fought Kami and Spirit, but afterwards, when him and Marie went back to their apartment, she would pry his true feelings out of him. He was trapped; he didn’t regret cutting Spirit open for knowledge, but he was sad that he lost his former partner and best friend. Marie could sympathize; as angry as she was with Kami, she missed her more than anything.

A year passes. Stein and Marie become a fierce, world-renowned team. Kami and Spirit were always just one step ahead.

And then it happened.

Stein and Marie were coming home from a mission in France, collecting several kishin egg souls, when they found out.

Coming up the stairs of the school, Marie was excited. “That was the 90th soul! Ten away! We might beat Spirit and Kami if we can get another mission like that soon!”

Marie was torn about being a Death Scythe. Ideally, she could become one and then immediately retire and get married or something, but with the progress her and Stein were making, she might have to hold off on that for a bit. She was sixteen, almost seventeen, and he had just turned fifteen. 

Marie had come to terms that, in her ideal world, it was Stein she wanted to marry, but seeing as how they weren’t even dating, that would definitely be pushed back a bit.

The way Marie say it, she deserved to retire early and have a happy life; she had been through so much shit! Since she was so young! It was ridiculous.

Stein hummed. “It would be great to rub it in to Kami and Spirit.” He agreed. “But big missions like that are pretty rare.”

“Well, here’s to hoping!”

They reached the top of the stairs and were greeted with a huge crowd. More than just the rush between classes; it seemed like the entire school had gathered in the courtyard.

Making their way through to the entrance, the pair soon saw why.

Lord Death was standing in the center of the courtyard, and in front of him were Kami and Spirit.

“Miss Kamila Queen,” he began. “Congratulations on making Mr. Spirit Albarn into a Death Scythe! Good work to the both of you! I’m so very proud, so excited! And in such a short amount of time, too!”

Kami and Spirit held hands and grinned at eachother. They had done it.

Stein looked at their souls. Kami truly was proud of herself, and of Spirit. And Spirit, meanwhile, was proud of her, and so very in love. But what Stein found interesting was that Spirit’s soul had changed, literally. It was larger, more powerful, and shaped slightly differently.

“So that’s the soul of a Death Scythe.” He murmured to himself. If he wasn’t determined to make Marie a Death Scythe before, he sure was now.

Stein forced himself to look away and calm down. He didn’t want to make Marie a Death Scythe so he could dissect her soul, no matter what his intrusive thoughts said. No amount of madness could make him hurt Marie.

Speaking of, Marie was angry, and jealous, and for the first time in a while wished that she was in Spirit’s place. So, she grabbed Stein’s hand and dragged them out of there. He was more than happy to leave.

From the center of the courtyard, Spirit could see his incredibly tall former partner in the crowd. He figured Marie was with him, and when some people closer to the front shifted he spotted her bright hair.

Spirit didn’t want to think of them right now. This was one of the happiest moments of his life! They did it! Who cared about Stein? The love of his life was beside him, he had just become a Death Scythe at  _ seventeen.  _ What could be better than this? 

Spirit had felt broken for a while. He didn’t want to leave Stein, but he had too, for his own safety. He was worried for Marie at first, but when he saw them happy together, Marie not at all worried, he felt jealous, and furthermore he felt guilty. Perhaps he should’ve given Stein another chance.

But those feelings eventually went away, thanks to Kami. They were a kickass team, no one could deny that. But secretly, a part of him missed jumping off of roofs with Stein, feeling like nothing could hurt them anymore.

Spirit looked back at Kami, and gave her a kiss. This was their moment. No looking back, only forward.  _ They  _ did it, not Stein. And nothing was going to ruin this now.

That night three promises were made, but only one would be kept.

Spirit promised Kami that he would always be loyal to her. He was past his womanizer habits, she was his only focus, and he loved her more than the world, so he promised that he would only ever have eyes for her. Later, he would regret having so much faith in himself. But he would still renew and seal this promise with a ring.

Stein promised Marie that he would make her a Death Scythe by the end of the year. 

He also promised her that he would never, ever, under any circumstances bring her harm. A promise similar to the one he made Spirit all those years ago; a promise that would also be broken, but in a significantly different way. How could he know what the future would hold.

True to his word, Marie became a Death Scythe before the end of the year. Like Spirit, she decided to stay at the academy until she was eighteen, and then she would go to Oceania. Stein loathed the day she would leave.

Not long after Marie’s ascension, Spirit came home to a pillow being thrown at his face, causing him to drop the groceries he had just bought. Looking around, he spotted Kami sitting on the couch, a cross between angry and afraid.

“Kami, what’s wrong?” Spirit slowly stepped forward, catching the next pillow that was thrown at him.

Kami looked up at Spirit, and said two words that would change his life more than anything else ever would.

“I’m pregnant.”


	4. The Future

Spirit is twenty-one, and his lovely, beautiful, smart, clever, adorable, precious daughter Maka has recently turned three.

Spirit, once becoming a Death Scythe, had originally requested to go to Western Europe, because why not! That’s where all his favorite authors were from, and Kami was willing to go too!

Once he turned eighteen, just before Maka was born, Lord Death requested him to be the DWMA’s local Death Scythe; in other words, to stay here. 

To be  _ the  _ go-to Death Scythe for Lord Death was too great of an honor to say no too, and so Spirit stayed. Maka was born not long after, and he decided he was glad she would grow up in Death City.

Now Spirit spent most of his time in the Death Room. Kami was a three-star meister, and was occasionally called on missions with other weapons, but mostly she did odd jobs around town, and looked after Maka.

Today, she and Spirit had gotten into a fight, since she caught him with a woman at Chupacabra’s. She demanded time alone and told Spirit to take Maka with him to the Death Room.

She was enjoying it more than he expected her too, but then again, there were two other kids her age in the room as well.

Around the time Spirit became a Death Scythe, Lord Death had disappeared for a day and come back with a child in his arms. No one wanted to accuse him of kidnapping, but he swayed everyone’s worries by explaining how Reaper’s reproduce. And thus, Death the Kid was brought into the world. Spirit wrote off Lord Death’s nervousness in regards to his son as parental worries.

Though Kid was a year older than Maka, and significantly quieter, they seemed to be getting along well.

The third child in the room was the loudest; a rambunctious little boy named Black*Star. He was a few months older than Maka, and had been brought to the DWMA on the day she was born. He was the lone survivor of the Star Clan, and a thirteen-year-old meister named Sid Barrett saved the child and adopted him, and would not take no for an answer. Seeing as how Sid was still a full-time student and meister, Black*Star often found himself in the Death Room or other places around the DWMA.

He was clearly happy to have other people his age to play with.

Spirit was content watching the three little ones play, barely even thinking about his angry wife.

Lord Death stood beside him, silent. Spirit had thought the Reaper was also enjoying watching the children, until he heard a sad sigh.

“Is something wrong, sir?” Spirit asked.

Lord Death hesitated. “I just don’t want to mess up again.” Was his first answer. “And I don’t want these three to get hurt, or caught up in the insanity of the world.” He added after a moment.

Spirit couldn’t help but laugh slightly. “I don’t think anyone wants to see their kids get hurt. But they do. And seeing as how these three are the kids of students and  _ you _ , they’ll probably find themselves in crazy situations.”

“You really aren’t helping here, Spirit.”

“My point is,” the weapon hurried, “we, as their parents, have to be there for them. Help them through the rough stuff, the hard times, the insanity of life. Then, it’s okay if they get hurt, because someone will always be there to patch them up.” Spirit realized he was lecturing and cleared his throat nervously. “At least, that’s what I think, anyway.”

Lord Death nodded. “I do think that is good advice.” 

“Glad to help.” Spirit grinned.

There was a moment of chaotic peace as the two watched the children play.

“Spirit,” Lord Death got his attention again. “Do you know where Stein is?”

Spirit tensed. Admittedly, he hadn’t thought about Stein since Marie’s ascension. He tried to calm down and shrugged. “No, why?”

“I’m worried about him. He left when Marie did, and no one has heard from him since. Two years of radio silence is a long time.”

“He probably just wants to be alone.”

“Perhaps. But I worry he’s doing more than just hiding for the sake of it.”

Meanwhile, Stein was in Canada. He dissected animals and already-dead humans. He didn’t want to lose his humanity, but the need to dissect was too great. The need to learn was too great.

And so he learned. For two years now, he had travelled the globe. Everywhere but the Arctics, and Oceania.

He wanted to see Marie, and he knew she probably would like to see him. But an irrational fear stopped him. He hadn’t said goodbye to her when she left for Oceania. Maybe she was mad at him, maybe she wasn’t. He wanted to apologize, but he’s been so bad at that.

So, he decided to isolate himself. Stein wanted to learn, so he would go to great lengths to do so. He shoved thoughts of Marie out of his head. He had shoved Spirit out a long time ago.

“I don’t really want to think about Stein.” Spirit admitted.

“That’s understandable.” Lord Death nodded. “Though, I hope you have happy memories of him, too.”

Spirit sighed, watching his daughter. “I do.” Shaking it off, he subtly switched topics. “What about Marie? She might know. What’s she been up too, down under?”

“I’ve already asked Marie. She had quite a long explanation, but the gist of it is she hasn’t seen him since she left.” Lord Death took a moment to think. “As for what she’s up too, well, the same as you, I suppose. Being a Death Scythe!”

Marie wanted to find a partner and retire. She was sick of the DWMA, sick of being a weapon, and sick of being alone.

She had stranded herself on an island by picking Oceania. She could have competed for Spirit’s title, but she didn’t. She thought, naively, that Stein would come with her to Oceania, like Kami would’ve gone with Spirit to Western Europe. She was wrong.

He didn’t even say goodbye. He had left in the night, the day before she was flying out. Apparently, no one had seen him since.

Part of her said good riddance. If that’s the kind of man he was, that wasn’t someone she wanted to marry.

Part of her wanted to go search for him herself. At least to make sure he wasn’t a kishin, or dead.

She wondered how he was coping with his madness now that she wasn’t there.

Her latest boyfriend texts her and tells her it isn’t working between them, and she slumps over on her desk.

She missed feeling like she belonged. And she belonged with Stein. Of that, she was certain.

“I’m sure she’s living it up down there. Lots of sun and surfing… sounds pretty great.” Spirit imagined. Lots of hot girls, warm beaches, but not stiflingly hot like Death City—

“Be careful!” Lord Death interrupted Spirit’s thoughts by shouting out to the kids, who had been dared by Black*Star to jump off the platform to the sandy floor. Not a very big drop, but they were three and four, so it certainly felt bigger for them.

All three got down safely, and then clambered back up the stairs to jump again. Like a slide, but with work.

Spirit marvelled at how cute his daughter was, with her little dress and bloomers and pigtails. She had her mother’s bangs already, and her eyes. Spirit had feigned betrayal when Maka wasn’t heterochromatic like him, but solid green suited her so much better.

“Maka seems to be doing well. How is Kami?” Lord Death prodded. A loaded question, Spirit was sure he knew.

He sighed as he remembered the fight. “She’s doing alright. Mad at me again.”

“Ah. I’m sure it’s your fault.”

“It is.” Spirit slumped.

Lord Death patted him on the back. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. If you love Kami half as much as you love Maka, then things will probably be fine.”

Spirit nodded, halfheartedly. After a moment, he sighed. “I don’t know if she’s happy. With me, with Maka… with anything.”

“Well maybe she’s not happy with you at the moment, who would blame her, but why wouldn’t she be happy with Maka?” Lord Death questioned, gesturing to the little girl. “She’s practically a mini-Kami, save for the bookworm trait, I suppose.”

“I know she loves Maka,” Spirit clairfied. “I just… I don’t think this is how she expected her life to be.”

Spirit was right. Kami wanted to travel the world. She wanted to see everything before deciding where she wanted to live for the rest of her life. She wanted to meet everyone before she decided who she wanted to be with.

This was the complete opposite. She lived in Death City, a place she had lived for years and now it seemed she’d live here until she died.

She married her highschool boyfriend when they were eighteen. Oh, how quickly he broke his promise and cheated on her. She should’ve known better than to trust a self-proclaimed womanizer.

She had a daughter. A delightful little girl named Maka, who she honestly loved with all her heart. Except, she never planned on this. She didn’t want a baby at seventeen. She didn’t want a baby at all. She loved Maka, but she couldn’t help but think that things would’ve been better if she had never come along.

A terrible thought, Kami knew that. But what could she do?

Kami was trapped in a box that she had put herself in on  _ accident _ . Everything was on accident at this point.

Kami stared out the window of her apartment. Spirit had taken Maka, like she had asked, so all was quiet.

As she watched the unmoving horizon, Kami wondered what it would be like to be anywhere but here.

“What about Kid?” Spirit asked, desperate to change the subject. “He’s growing fast. Will you enroll him at the DWMA when he’s old enough?”

“If that’s what he wants then, maybe.” Lord Death sighed. “I just… He  _ cannot  _ turn out like Asura. I can’t make that mistake again. I’m so glad he’s here, but I’m so afraid of what might happen next.”

Spirit nodded. “Yeah, that’s… yeah.” He took a moment to watch Kid, who was being very quiet and gentle with the two, much louder children. “I think he’ll be okay.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Look, I think that you’ve learned from the past. And you have so many people to help you, now. You don’t need to keep it a secret that he’s your son. It’s all gonna work out fine.”

Kid was currently fixing Maka’s ponytails so they would be “perfectly symmetrical” as Black*Star paced around them in a large circle.

Lord Death sighed, but it was much happier than before. “They’re good kids.”

“They really are.”

“They’ll do great things.”

“We have to protect them. Forever. My daughter will never see this cruel world.”

Lord Death patted Spirit’s head. “You know what they say, Spirit. Best defense is a good offense.” He looked back to the kids, who were now animatedly debating what to do next. “If we teach them, they’ll be able to protect themselves.”

“You’re right.” Spirit ran a hand through his hair. “You’re right.”

When Spirit and Maka went home for the day, he thought about what the world was like. Kishin eggs, a missing mad scientist, a sleeping kishin who now has a younger brother, witches, wars, so much more…

But when he looked at Maka’s smiling face, it all faded away. Every worry he could possibly have would be gone the second Maka looked at him. She was his world.

Spirit, as a Death Scythe, wanted to make sure the world was safe for everyone. Spirit, as Maka’s father, could give less of a shit about the world, as long as Maka was okay.

And Maka, sweet Maka, had no idea of her future. The girl destined to make a Death Scythe stronger than her father, to defeat a kishin, to save the world, was currently sitting on her father's lap, drifting off to sleep, as he read her a book of Lord Byron’s poetry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! This was my first resbang, and it was so much fun!!!! My artist partner was cherry-psd, check out their art of the gang's first fight!!!!!! https://cherry-psd.tumblr.com/post/189655952719/my-art-piece-for-mastermind-marius-s-fic-for


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